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Authoritarianism as a Factor in Presidential Decisions Regarding the Use of Military Force. Dissertation at Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology 1993, 294 pp. (Abstract in Vol. 54/05-b of Dissertation Abstracts International, pp. 2777.

  • This study explored the role of authoritarianism in presidential decision-making regarding the use of force. Harry Truman's decision to fight in Korea, John Kennedy's decision to increase American military advisers in Vietnam, Lyndon Johnson's decision to increase American forces in Vietnam, Richard Nixon's decision to invade Cambodia, Ronald Reagan's decision to invade Grenada, and George Bush's decision to attack Iraq were studied using the Revised Authoritarianism Questionnaire (RAQ), designed for the study on the basis of earlier field studies using the F-Scale (Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson, and R. N. Sanford, 1950) and the RWA scale (Altemeyer, 1988). The RAQ was used to do a content analysis of writings about the six presidents' decisions to use force in order to determine the degree of authoritarianism in the decision making process. – Theoretical literature on authoritarianism including Wilhelm Reich, Erich FROMM, Max Horkheimer, Abraham Maslow and others was reviewed. Field studies of authoritarianism: the F-Scale (Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson, and R. N. Sanford, 1950), the Authoritarian-Equalitarian Scale (F. Sanford, 1950), and the RWA scale (Altemeyer, 1988) were also reviewed. Precis of writings about the decisions were taken from the writings of the presidents, their aides and advisers, and other sources with first-hand information. Balance was sought among supporters and opponents of each president in the precis. The RAQ is a twelve item scale which assesses directly the factors of authoritarianism. It is scored using a five-point Likert scale. Using the RAQ an overall authoritarianism rating as well as ratings on each of the scale items was obtained for each president studied.

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Metadaten
Author:J. F. Jr. Whelan
Document Type:Dissertations
Language:English
Year of first Publication:1993
Release Date:2012/12/13
Format:no copy existent / keine Kopie vorhanden
IdNo:Whelan_J_F_Jr_1993
Writings about Erich Fromm (Secondary Literature):Dissertations / Dissertationen
Erich Fromm's Library and Erich Fromm Archive:Dissertations / Dissertationen
Licence (German):
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