Four studies were conducted examining authoritarianism in Romania. It was found that authoritarianism could be measured reliably and was consistently related to political attitudes, political support, and prejudice. More specifically, authoritarianism was positively related to support for communist principles of distributive justice and a communist economy. However, authoritarianism was unrelated to actual support for the socialist left, positively related to support for the noncommunist, fascist right, and negatively related to support for the pro-Western centrist parties. The strength and consistency of the findings more than 10 years after the fall of communism suggest that authoritarianism’s relationship with communism in Eastern Europe might be more resistant to change than originally thought and may extend on to future generations. Implications for current authoritarianism theory are discussed.
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