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Personality traits, democratic support, and authoritarian nostalgia

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Social Science Quarterly
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Sanghoon Kim‐Leffingwell
Sanghoon Kim‐Leffingwell
Sanghoon Kim‐Leffingwell
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Abstract and Figures

Objective Why do democratic voters feel nostalgia for an authoritarian past? This article introduces a dispositional framework for authoritarian nostalgia, showing that in addition to situational factors, an enduring source of sentimental longing for the authoritarian past may very well be rooted in a person's core psychological structure. Methods I use mixed‐methods approach with data collection from South Korea and Taiwan. Using linear regression models with interaction terms, I analyze the contingent effects of personality traits on authoritarian nostalgia. Results I find that people high in emotional stability are likely to be nostalgic and that the trait's effects are greater than those from other traits traditionally associated with authoritarian ideology. Results from the interaction model show that these impacts are more pronounced with weak and moderate democrats but not with strong democrats. Conclusion People high in emotional stability are nostalgic due to their longing for the proven socioeconomic performance of the past. In addition, the democratic values of individual citizens can constrict how personality shapes voters’ view of former dictatorships.
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Received: 1 February 2023 Revised: 1 May 2023 Accepted: 19 May 2023
DOI: 10.1111/ssqu.13286
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Personality traits, democratic support, and
authoritarian nostalgia
Sanghoon Kim-Leffingwell
Center for Advanced Governmental Studies, Johns
Hopkins University, Washington, District of
Columbia, USA
Correspondence
Sanghoon Kim-Leffingwell Senior Lecturer, Center
for Advanced Governmental Studies, Johns Hopkins
University, Washington, DC, USA.
Email: skl@jhu.edu
Abstract
Objective: Why do democratic voters feel nostalgia for an
authoritarian past? This article introduces a dispositional frame-
work for authoritarian nostalgia, showing that in addition to
situational factors, an enduring source of sentimental longing for
the authoritarian past may very well be rooted in a person’s core
psychological structure.
Methods: I use mixed-methods approach with data collection
from South Korea and Taiwan. Using linear regression mod-
els with interaction terms, I analyze the contingent effects of
personality traits on authoritarian nostalgia.
Results: I find that people high in emotional stability are likely
to be nostalgic and that the trait’s effects are greater than those
from other traits traditionally associated with authoritarian ideol-
ogy. Results from the interaction model show that these impacts
are more pronounced with weak and moderate democrats but
not with strong democrats.
Conclusion: People high in emotional stability are nostalgic due
to their longing for the proven socioeconomic performance of
the past. In addition, the democratic values of individual citi-
zens can constrict how personality shapes voters’ view of former
dictatorships.
KEYWORDS
authoritarian nostalgia, big-five framework, personality traits, postauthoritarian
democracies
More than three decades have passed since the third wave of democratization at the end of the 20th
century. While the statues and statutes of former dictators have long since been destroyed, democratic
frustration and authoritarian nostalgia have met with a rise in support for authoritarian alternatives in many
new democracies, and nostalgic rhetoric has functioned as a rallying cry in many democratic elections.
Authoritarian successors have returned to power in Eastern Europe and Latin America, and in East and
Southeast Asia, exemplified by Park Geun-hye in South Korea and Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the Philippines,
among others. This lingering political legacy of former dictatorships begs the following questions: Why do
voters feel nostalgic for former dictatorships and their leaders? And why do some people feel this nostalgia
more strongly or more often than others?
Social Science Quarterly. 2023;104:619–635. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ssqu © 2023 by the Southwestern Social Science Association. 619
... While the paper does contain statistical inference 8 , it limits itself to demographic variables such as education, age, and ethnicity, and none of the potentially salient variables familiar in the literature, such as psychological orientation on politics and government, individual personality traits, and even emotions. 9 In this paper, we leverage the result of the 2022 Philippine presidential election to articulate potential avenues of research on the ongoing critical debates of the Marcos family revival in contemporary Philippine politics. We outline and develop analytical perspectives and key areas of focus that do not seek to supplant existing theoretical frameworks but rather to enrich and supplement them. ...
Electing the dictator’s son: the 2022 Philippine election in an era of authoritarian nostalgia and democratic decline
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... Authoritarian nostalgia can generate group sentiment among voters who share the core values from former authoritarian political rhetoric, such as economic prosperity, political stability, and social membership (Kim-Leffingwell, 2023;Choi, 2019). ...
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... Authoritarian personality is frequently used to describe personality traits of the individual that are biased in favor of social obedience, authority-worship, and dependence on the group (Ma 2022). Numerous studies have demonstrated that individuals with authoritarian personalities exhibit a rigid, binary worldview; struggle with ambiguity and complexity; are highly sensitive to perceived threats; and demonstrate stronger animosity toward outgroups that diverge from their views (Jost, Federico, and Napier 2009;Jost et al. 2018;Sanghoon 2023). Individuals with an authoritarian personality are more inclined to disregard conflicting facts in favor of ideas aligning with their views, particularly in perceived high-security risk situations. ...
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