Threat to Democracy The Appeal of Authoritarianism in an Age of Uncertainty

"This book was written because of the urgent need to gain a deeper understanding of the widespread decline of democracy and the unnerving movement toward dictatorship in the 21st century. We are confronted by serious and unexpected challenges to our freedoms and human rights. We need to gain a deeper understanding of threats to democracy in the context of globalization, the increasing economic and cultural integration of societies around the world, and the international populist backlash that is sweeping across national boundaries. The target audience for this book includes the lay public and academics interested in better understanding the psychology of dictatorship and threats to democracy in the United States and around the world; and students and teachers in courses on politics, government, and political psychology. The book is structured into four parts comprising 10 chapters. Part I discusses political patterns and reversals to dictatorship. Part II explores the relationship between freedom and dictatorship. Part III describes the relationship between globalization and dictatorships. Part IV examines the factors that continue to pull us toward dictatorship and explore solutions to the current global trends away from democracy. The afterword presents the relationship between first-order change, second-order change, and dictatorship."--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).