Oliver Decker on the Leipzig Authoritarianism Study 2024

Every two years, around 2,500 people across Germany are surveyed for the study. Interviewers select respondents at home and ask them to complete questionnaires on their political attitudes. Participants fill in the forms themselves and then return them. The questionnaire asks them to rate a series of statements on a five-point scale. How do you formulate the statements?

We start by discussing in our research group what we want to investigate in the study. This year we wanted to record anti-Semitic sentiment that might also be accepted in left-wing circles. We then design items, which are statements that reflect these prejudices. These are then tested in pre-tests that precede the actual study. This involved interviewing 4,200 people online. This year, for example, we covered two new dimensions of anti-Semitism: post-colonial anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic anti-Zionism.

What are the characteristics of these forms of anti-Semitism?

These forms of prejudice against Jews are characterised by the fact that they resonate with different political milieus. To explain this, let me touch upon what is known as the Historikerstreit, or historians’ dispute, which took place in Germany in the mid-1980s. The question was whether the crimes of the Nazi era really were unique. Or whether the concentration camps were not a reaction to the Gulag system in the Soviet Union. According to this view, the Shoah – the murder of European Jews by or in the name of Germans – was merely a reaction to something that was already underway. In the 1980s, this thesis was widely contested by the liberal public and there was clear opposition to it, as it was seen as trivialising the Holocaust. At first it seemed that the thesis would not survive.

Today, postcolonial anti-Semitism can be seen as an outgrowth of a perspective espoused in postcolonial studies. It interprets European colonial crimes as a model for Nazism, and Israel itself as a colonial settlement project. You could almost call this an historians’ dispute 2.0 – if there were any protest from the liberal public. Because here, too, the singularity of the Shoah is contested. And here, too, we see a form of guilt denial that we have been recording for some time as what we call guilt-deflecting anti-Semitism.

Through post-colonial anti-Semitism, it is even possible to base a rejection of Jews on a desire for justice. But this is in ignorance of the circumstances of Israel’s creation. Moreover, the delegitimization of Israel is based on the age-old anti-Semitic stereotype of Jews as “foreign” – even though they have always lived in the area. Today you can hear speeches about the “so-called Jewish homeland” at left-wing demonstrations in Germany – the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the generation of perpetrators are shedding their scruples and even seeing themselves as fighters against injustice.

Anti-Semitism is classified as an anti-modern resentment. What function do such anti-modern resentments serve?

When we talk about anti-modern resentment, we are referring to analyses by Fritz Stern and Shulamit Volkov; Stern spoke of many of the groups that prepared the ground for National Socialism as anti-modern movements. They were united by a longing for a past that never existed. They felt anger towards those who were perceived to be representatives of a modern society. And Volkov showed that for these milieus, there were two groups that attracted the most hatred: Jews and women. This was because they took bourgeois society at its word and insisted that the promise of equality should be honoured.

 Other sections of society react with anger to these attempts at emancipation. This is because the freedom that modern societies claim is also a great challenge for many people; it goes hand in hand with being set free or having no boundaries. In addition, in their lives there is a gap between the aspirations and reality of bourgeois society. But those who accept this gap and submit to the rules see the desires of others as a provocation. A longing for the “past” can therefore easily be fuelled by those people who feel a longing for their “future”, those who prefer to look forward. 

Today, this anger is directed not only against women and Jews, but against others as well. To paraphrase the philosopher Bernhard Waldenfels: the anger is also directed against those who come and stay. In other words, against those who are perceived as foreign and who seem to challenge the established order: foreigners, Muslims, Sinti and Roma or trans people. Incidentally, these groups can also be carriers of prejudices themselves, the two are not mutually exclusive. But it is they who are the primary objects of hatred, and this is what our study measures in the “anti-modern resentment” categories.

Why did you look at anti-Americanism and anti-capitalism this year?

Anti-Americanism is part of Europe’s DNA. The old world has always looked down on the new continent. Our survey also shows that anti-Americanism is widespread. A third of respondents agree with anti-American statements, while another third are at least open to them.

The complex challenges of the world can be personified in this rejection of the United States. A place, a person or a group is blamed, which seems to make the situation easier to understand. There are great reservations, for example, against US speculators who seem to be destroying the market economy. 

A similar situation exists with anti-capitalism, which incidentally is not a distinguishing feature of left-wing movements alone. Anti-capitalist attitudes also exist in right-wing authoritarian, conservative or anti-Semitic milieus. Our figures also show this. Two-thirds of the population demonstrate an anti-capitalist attitude. This may also reflect a longing for a situation without contradictions.

Do esotericism and belief in conspiracies offer a remedy for people’s disillusionment with current political challenges?

We first measured conspiracy mentality in 2012, when it was even more widespread than during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conspiracy thinking and anti-Semitism are like a kind of “dark resource”. That is, they serve to restore a sense of control in moments of uncertainty. Superstition gives people the feeling that they can name the exact source of a threat, even if the reality is much more complex. Instead of social conditions, the blame can be placed on individuals. 

Esotericism is similar, but control is supposedly re-established through magical acts designed to satisfy higher powers. This may seem benign, but it is also a secondary form of authoritarianism. Again, it demands submission and subordination to a group, and deviation is punished. Anger and disappointment can arise, as they always do when identity has to be sought through groups: difference cannot be tolerated. And so, aggression – directed against “others” – is never far away.