The presentation is based on representative samples from Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Germany (N > 1000 per country). The first focus is whether authoritarianism and political activism can be assessed validly across the five countries using identical instruments. Subsequently, MANOVAs are presented to show country differences in both authoritarianism and political activism. Slovakia exhibits the highest level of authoritarianism, whereas political activism is highest in Poland. The main question is to what degree authoritarianism curbs political activism. SEM analyses show that the relationship between authoritarianism and political activism is strongest in Germany and weakest in Slovakia. In summary, authoritarianism is a persistent yet weak negative predictor of political activism across all Central European countries, with the relationship significantly stronger in Germany than in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.