To keep it short the reason why some people are ok with authoritarianism is because most structures that we deal with on a daily basis are authoritarian.
Here is evidence that shows a significant amount of people are ok with authoritarianism:
This should be concerning.
And the thing is that it makes sense once you look at what are the most common systems that people interact with the most.
A clear example would be the Boss-Worker relationship. The boss creates a set of objectives/tasks for the worker and the worker sees them out. Rarely does the worker get the chance to set the higher level direction of what they are supposed to be doing with their time leaving them obedient to the boss and their demands.
Another example would be some Parent-Child relationships. Some parents treat their children as people that should show absolute respect towards them just because they are the parents not because they have something that is of value to the child (experience).
Even in the places where we do make democratic decisions those are usually made in ways that are supposed to be supplemental to authoritative decision making. An example would be how we don’t vote on decisions but instead how we vote on others to make decisions for us.
Once you add up all the experiences that someone has throughout their whole life you will see that most of them come into direct contact with authoritarian systems which means it makes that kind of way of thinking familiar and therefore acceptable.
Unlike democracy which is an abstract concept and something we only really experience from time to time.
If we want people to actually stop thinking authoritarianism is ok then we as a society are gonna have to stop using these kinds of systems / ways of thinking in our daily lives.
For the sake of clarity, are you referring to direct democracy?
Yes.
How do you propose this would fit in with, assumedly, the existing representative democracy? Are you proposing that direct democracy should replace representative democracy or that it should work alongside representative democracy? If you are proposing the latter, what form would you suggest that it should take?
Well, everything works as it does now (meaning politicians do their usual jobs), but if someone doesn’t like their decision, they have some time to gather enough signatures to put it under a referendum.
Meaning you don’t have a referendum over literally everything, only if enough people think it’s worthy of a referendum.
The same principle applies for proposing new stuff instead of overturning what politicians did.
Obviously a proper analysis of the thresholds would be needed.
This is an interesting idea. I’ll have to think on this more.