The Authoritarian Xenophobe

The most dangerous outsider may be someone who has never crossed a border.

How does a neighbor become an enemy? How does a citizen become a foreigner in their own country? And how do political movements turn ordinary differences into threats to national survival?

In The Authoritarian Xenophobe: The Psychology of Xenophobia in Totalitarian Regimes, Zoë Roberts examines how authoritarian movements cultivate fear, manipulate belonging, and transform prejudice into political power.

Drawing on historical evidence and political psychology, Roberts explores how economic insecurity, cultural anxiety, nationalism, propaganda, and perceived threats can be organized into hostility toward entire populations. She traces the progression from suspicion and social exclusion to discriminatory institutions, state repression, and the erosion of democratic protections.

But xenophobia is neither inevitable nor confined to dictatorships. Understanding how people are taught to fear outsiders also reveals how those divisions can be challenged.

When a government claims it must protect the nation from its own people, who gets to decide who belongs?

A compelling examination of the psychology of exclusion, the politics of fear, and the dangerous relationship between national identity and authoritarian power.