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The White authoritarians: On the link between social intolerance and anti-democratic values.

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White Americans who are intolerant to the presence of immigrants, and people from a different race, and people who speak a different language, ultimately see democratic institutions as empowering this minority beyond their actual numerical endowment. When you couple that with the fact that the same subset of White Americans view them as a threat to status and material wellbeing, they see democracy as empowering them, and dis-empowering White America.

Political scientists Steven Miller and Nicholas Davis examine the link between White intolerance and anti-democratic values - as White citizens displaying intolerance to racial, ethnic and cultural 'others' perceive the benefits of democracy extending beyond their own group, they become more likely to withdraw support for democracy and embrace authoritarian ideology.

Steven and Nicholas are authors of the paper White Outgroup Intolerance and Declining Support for American Democracy.

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Guest

Nicholas Davis

Nicholas Davis is an Assistant Research Scientist at the Public Policy Research Institute at Texas A&M University and a Lecturer in the School of Government and Public Policy at the University of Arizona.

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Guest

Steven V. Miller

Steven V. Miller is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science at Clemson University.

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