Authoritarianism study: support for democracy falls to its lowest level
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A new study shows a drastic decline in support for democracy in East Germany and a nationwide increase in closed right-wing extremist worldviews to 6.9 percent.
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Why It Matters
The study is carried out every two years based on an opinion survey and examines political attitudes in Germany.
According to the information, this is due to “the drastic decline in East Germany,” where support for democracy fell from 94.6 percent in 2024 to 85.7 percent now. In the West there was a slight increase over the same period. The study is carried out every two years based on an opinion survey.
The proportion of people who have a closed right-wing extremist worldview has increased. According to the study, it is currently 6.9 percent nationwide. The last time the scientists found a higher value was in the survey in 2012. At that time it was 8.8 percent.
Here too there is a significant difference between East and West. While 6.5 percent of West Germans currently have a right-wing extremist worldview, the figure is 8.5 percent in the East.
Men are more likely to support a right-wing authoritarian dictatorship than women
The numbers also differ between genders: according to the survey, 5.6 percent of men support a right-wing authoritarian dictatorship, while only 3 percent of women do so. The tendency to chauvinism - the belief that one's own group is superior to others - is also more pronounced among men (22 percent) than among women (18 percent).
According to their own statements, the scientists at the University of Leipzig discovered a “regressive nostalgia” in which a political contrast is constructed between an idealized past and a present that is perceived as corrupt and threatening in 15 percent of those surveyed. This “aggressive expression of nostalgia” is significantly more common among older people, in low income groups, among East Germans and those surveyed without a high school diploma than among younger people, West Germans and people with higher education and higher income.
To measure these attitudes, respondents were asked to make statements such as: "It annoys me that people like me no longer receive the same respect in our society as they used to" and "I feel nostalgic when I think about the economic advantages that people like me used to have."
Open Questions
- What specific measures are politicians planning in response to the study?
- How do the researchers explain the exact increase in East Germany?
