This essay explores the possible mechanisms through which leaders mobilize popular support for domination and violence. It shares the insights of Theodor Adorno and Hannah Arendt on fascism and the Nazi rise to power, while drawing on current analyses that reveal how similar patterns continue to emerge in modern political life.
Arendt: Mass Loyalty and Institutional Hollowing
Hannah Arendt emphasized that authoritarian leaders endure so long as they mobilize the loyalty of the masses, who allow them to dismantle institutions from within. In The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951/1973), she describes how the authoritarian movements subordinate law and institutions to the will of the leader. Institutions collapse when their authority is undermined: “Institutions are destroyed when the authority of the people who inhabit them is destroyed” (Arendt, 1963, p. 140). Norm-breaking by leaders is not punished but admired, since it demonstrates fidelity to the movement rather than to democratic procedure (Arendt, 1951/1973, p. 382).
Adorno: Authoritarian Dispositions and Cultural Conditioning
Theodor Adorno complements this picture by explaining why the masses support authoritarianism in the first place. In The Authoritarian Personality (Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson, & Sanford, 1950), he identified personality structures marked by submission to authority, hostility to out-groups, and rigid conventionalism. Such predispositions make citizens receptive to authoritarian appeals.
Further, in Dialectic of Enlightenment (Horkheimer & Adorno, 1944/2002), Adorno argued that the culture industry conditions individuals to conformity and passivity, fostering acceptance of domination. As summarized above, Adorno identifies the psychological and cultural mechanisms that render mass complicity possible.
Levitsky & Ziblatt: Backsliding from Within
Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt’s How Democracies Die (2018) brings these insights into a contemporary analysis. They show how democracies most often erode not through coups, but through elected leaders incrementally undermining institutions. Leaders exploit polarization and mass loyalty to break democratic norms. They do this by:
• rejecting the legitimacy of opponents,
• tolerating violence,
• curtailing civil liberties, and
• weakening independent institutions (Levitsky & Ziblatt, 2018, pp. 106–115).
Like Arendt, they stress that institutions only endure if people respect and uphold them. Like Adorno, they note that citizens can be conditioned—through polarization, media, and culture—to accept domination as legitimate.
Convergence: A Multi-Level Theory of Authoritarian Endurance
Bringing these perspectives together highlights the possibility of three dimensions of authoritarian endurance:
• Political-institutional (Arendt): Leaders stay in power by hollowing out institutions and mobilizing mass loyalty.
• Psychological-cultural (Adorno): Masses support authoritarianism because authoritarian dispositions and cultural industries condition them to accept domination.
• Contemporary political movements (Levitsky & Ziblatt): Democratic erosion unfolds gradually, from within, as leaders exploit polarization and weaken guardrails.
Together, these frameworks underscore that authoritarianism persists not simply through coercion, but through the active complicity of citizens, enabled by psychological conditioning, cultural manipulation, and political mobilization. Democratic backsliding is therefore a multidimensional process, linking the inner lives of citizens (Adorno), the fragility of institutions (Arendt), and the strategies of contemporary autocrats (Levitsky & Ziblatt).
References
• Adorno, T. W., Frenkel-Brunswik, E., Levinson, D. J., & Sanford, R. N. (1950). The authoritarian personality. Harper & Row.
• Arendt, H. (1963). On revolution. Viking Press.
• Arendt, H. (1973). The origins of totalitarianism (New ed.). Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. (Original work published 1951)
• Horkheimer, M., & Adorno, T. W. (2002). Dialectic of enlightenment: Philosophical fragments (E. Jephcott, Trans.). Stanford University Press. (Original work published 1944)
• Levitsky, S., & Ziblatt, D. (2018). How democracies die. Crown.
Art by Kate W 
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