How does Nietzsche explain the public’s support for authoritarianism?

Friedrich Nietzsche interprets the public’s support for authoritarianism not only on a political or historical basis, but also on a deeper philosophical-psychological basis. His approach focuses on the individual’s inner world, value systems and existential orientation. In order to understand this tendency, it is necessary to consider Nietzsche’s basic concepts such as herd psychology, will to power (der Wille zur Macht), ressentiment and nihilism together.

1. Herd Psychology and the Desire to Obedience

According to Nietzsche, a person is essentially a value creator. However, this creative power develops together with individual courage, will and freedom. When these qualities weaken, the individual turns to ready-made values ​​instead of creating their own values, and this surrenders them to herd psychology. Herd psychology is a state of consciousness in which the individual melts himself in the safe embrace of a collective and avoids personal responsibility and freedom.

At the basis of herd psychology lies insecurity, fear and the lack of the ability to produce meaning alone. The individual unconsciously transfers his decision-making authority and moral obligations to an external authority, escaping from the existential burden arising from being an individual. At this point, the authoritarian figure becomes not only a manager, but also a psychological archetype, a “guiding God” that fills the spiritual void of the people.

Nietzsche expresses this situation as follows:

“Man has become so accustomed to submission that even the thought of freedom terrifies him.”

(Beyond Good and Evil)

2. The Destruction of the Will to Power and the Attraction of Authority

For Nietzsche, all living beings direct their existence with the will to power. This is related to the drive of life to exceed its own limits, to push and shape itself. However, in modern society, this will to power is suppressed by moral dogmas, religious ideologies and social norms.

An individual who cannot realize his will to power is deprived of the power to realize his own potential. In this case, he experiences an inner emptiness and lack of direction. As such individuals lose their own will, they feel the need to seek refuge in a strong external will. The authoritarian leader provides a kind of “substitute will to power” for these weak souls: the individual compensates for his own lack of will with loyalty to the leader.

This phenomenon is the externalization of individual spiritual energy: when a person cannot build his own inner integrity, he gives meaning to his existence by worshipping a figure stronger than himself.

3. Ressentiment: The Psychological Response of the Weak

A key concept in Nietzsche’s moral psychology, ressentiment is the internalization of the repressed anger that weak individuals develop against the strong over time and transforms into value creation. This response is the attempt of the weak individual, who cannot directly attack, to feel superior by morally degrading his enemy. Ressentiment is the psychological ground for the rise of authoritarian figures because these leaders present a target for the people’s anger and resentment: the enemy, the foreigner, the different.

In this context, the people accept the “cleansing violence” of the authoritarian leader because this violence acts as an expression of their own internal conflicts. Thus, authority becomes not only a founder of order but also a means of spiritual purification.

4. Nihilism and Taking Refuge in Authoritarianism

Nietzsche’s definition of nihilism is the existential void that emerges with the destruction of values. With the death of God (i.e. the collapse of transcendent sources of meaning), the individual no longer knows what to believe in or how to live. In this moment of crisis, people usually turn to one of two paths:

Either they will create their own values ​​and assume individual responsibility for becoming superhuman,

Or they will escape the weight of this responsibility and invent a new God—this time a leader, state, or ideology.

The latter is the psychological basis of authoritarianism. These people escape the terror of freedom and accept safe slavery. Nietzsche interprets this as “a latent hatred for freedom.” Because freedom is also the burden of creating meaning, and most people cannot handle this burden.

5. The Psychodynamics of the Masses: Identification with Authority

Nietzsche argues that the modern individual, while living in an inner void, searches for “integrity,” and often finds this in a power outside of himself. Identification with the authoritarian leader is the individual’s suspension of his ego and the establishment of a psychological union with the powerful. This is not only an ideological process, but also a narcissistic process of gratification: by identifying with the powerful figure, the individual denies his own powerlessness.

This process is a symptom of an increasing “hunger for meaning” in modern society, and according to Nietzsche, this hunger is attempted to be satisfied by authoritarian ideologies that operate in a way that is similar to religion, if not philosophically, then psychologically.