Authoritarianism today—a revised measurement model

Introduction In light of recent social developments, debates about the adequacy of Altemeyer’s widely-used scale on “right-wing authoritarianism” have (re-)gained momentum, as a shift in the articulation and expression of authoritarianism could be observed. In the German-speaking realm, researchers argue for a reconsideration of the original conceptualization of authoritarianism, drawing on a developmental-psychological model and a social-theoretical basis in the tradition of Critical Theory. Making this debate accessible to an international readership, we propose a measurement model that conceptualizes authoritarianism as a third-order factor comprising two distinct authoritarian psychodynamics — sadomasochism and fetishism — as second-order factors. Methods After deriving these factors theoretically, we test the proposed model by means of confirmatory factor analysis on a German representative dataset (N = 2,466). Results The proposed model fits the data very well (scaled CFI = 0.965, scaled RMSEA = 0.058, scaled SRMR = 0.044) with significant loadings throughout, though it cannot be statistically distinguished from two equivalent specifications and shows limited reliability at the higher-order level ( ω l2 = 0.67). Discussion By critically reconsidering the origins of authoritarianism and systematically operationalizing and testing our theoretical claims, the paper sheds light on the concept’s evolving manifestations and contributes to a nuanced understanding of authoritarian tendencies amidst emerging societal changes.