Threat to Democracy

This book explores the recent international decline in democracy and the psychological appeal of authoritarianism in the context of rapid globalization. The rise of populist movements and leaders across the globe has produced serious and unexpected challenges to human rights and freedoms. By understanding the psychological foundations of the surge in populism and authoritarian leadership, we can better develop ways to nurture and safeguard democracy.
 
Why and how do authoritarian leaders gain popular support? In this book, social psychologist Fathali M. Moghaddam discusses the stages of political development on the continuum from absolute dictatorship to the ideal of actualized democracy. He explains how "fractured globalization" – by which technological and economic forces push societies toward greater global unification, while social identity needs pull individuals back into tribal identification – can produce a turn toward dictatorship, even in previously democratic societies. The book concludes with potential solutions to the rise of authoritarian leaders and ways to strengthen democracy.

Fathali M. Moghaddam is Professor, Department of Psychology, and Director, Interdisciplinary Program in Cognitive Science, Georgetown University. He is the editor of Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology (a quarterly journal published by the American Psychological Association). Dr. Moghaddam was born in Iran, educated from an early age in England, and worked for the United Nations and for McGill University before joining Georgetown in 1990. He returned to Iran in the "spring of revolution" in 1979 and was researching there during the hostage taking crisis and the early years of the Iran-Iraq war. He has conducted experimental and field research in numerous cultural contexts and published extensively on radicalization, intergroup conflict, human rights and duties, and the psychology of dictatorship and democracy. His most recent books include The Psychology of Dictatorship (2013), The Psychology of Democracy (2016), The Encyclopedia of Political Behavior (2017), and Mutual Radicalization: How Groups and Nations Drive Each Other to Extremes (2018). Dr. Moghaddam has received a number of awards for his scholarly contributions, including the Outstanding International Psychologist Award for 2012 from the American Psychological Association, Division of International Psychology.