Conservatives Without Conscience

A few closing thoughts about authoritarian personalities. As distasteful as these qualities may appear, for authoritarians they can be (secretly or even openly) very attractive. While these traits may, or may not, be found in all persons who are social dominators or right-wing authoritarians, they are characteristics of those who test high. People who test low tend to have fewer of these traits, but it is not possible to say which ones they do possess. Although most authoritarians will deny they are such, often failing to recognize these qualities in themselves, low testers may, in fact, be justified in their denials. The good news is that when some high-testing right-wing authoritarians do become aware of their characteristics they actually do work to change their outlook and behavior. Social dominators, however, do not seem able to make such adjustments. Authoritarianism is not a pathology; nor is the term pejorative, for it is descriptive.

However one views authoritarians, their behavior is not without significance, for they have played a major role in developing the contemporary conservative movement, and now they are taking conservatism increasingly toward political authoritarianism. Many are appropriately described as conservatives without conscience. What distinguishes conservatives with conscience from those without? The summary table below highlights a few distinctions, based upon information developed by social scientists and upon my own broad application of that information to government and politics at the national level.