THEORETICAL CONUNDRUM - THE POLITICS AND SCIENCE OF THEORIZING AUTHORITARIAN COGNITION

The historical development of the four main theories which have attemp ted to explain the relationship between cognitive style and ideologica l content-i.e., authoritarianism extremism theory, context theory, and value pluralism theory-is analyzed from a rhetorical perspective. The discussion focuses on the manner in which the tensions between theore tical universalism and political critique have been ''resolved'' by th eorists working in different historico-political contexts. While both these scientific and political values have been of central concern in theorizing the link between cognitive style and content, they are deep ly incompatible because it is not possible to establish a fixed relati onship between a personality dimension and the changing beliefs associ ated with different ideologies across time and place. This has prompte d theorists aiming for universalistic accounts to define ideological o rientation in terms of psychological processes rather than content, wh ich, in turn, has compromised the critical potential of their theory T he paper concludes that the historical development of the literature m ay be understood in terms of dilemmatic counter-themes which under dif ferent political circumstances, have been resolved in novel ways.