Demokratin på undantag En kvantitativ riskgruppsanalys av eko-auktoritära och dess implikationer för undervisning

Abstract

Concern exists if young people's increased support for authoritarian systems forecasts a loosening of liberal democracy. Attempts on explaining the increased support commonly refers to either one of two explanatory models: Bob Altemeyer's authoritarian predisposition and John Duckitt's group-authoritarianism. There also exists a discussion about crisis authoritarians, who view restrictions on democracy as a necessary means to combat societal crises. Others propose that youths have grown tired of inactive climate politics and might look towards eco-authoritarianism as a way forward. Eco-authoritarians furthermore present teachers with a controversial issue: is technocratic governance in the case of climate change reasonable? Still, empirical research on prevalence and characteristics of eco-authoritarians is virtually lacking. Using data from the Swedish SOM-institute, this paper examines whether 'generation Greta' are more eco-authoritarian than others and which factors that can predict high levels of eco-authoritarianism on an individual level. The results show that young people on average are as skeptical of eco-authoritarian governance as others. It’s further shown that eco authoritarians seem to be ambivalent towards authoritarian measures and feel threatened by climate change. This implies that eco-authoritarians could be viewed as a sub-group to crisis authoritarians and that the climate movement provides a breeding ground for eco authoritarianism. These findings are lastly discussed in an educational context. It seems as civics education have an important role to play through subject immersion in climate politics, critical discussions about the ideology's basic assumptions and refraining from using ‘tragedy of the commons’ as an analogy for the question of responsibility, among other things.