Authoritarian learning: a conceptual overview

There is increasing evidence that the renewed resilience of authoritarian regimes is due, in part, to authoritarian learning. While scholarly interest in authoritarian learning is growing, it remains an underdeveloped area of study. This article aims to provide an overview of the state of the field and to promote future research and debate. It begins with a discussion of how the broader concepts of learning are applicable to authoritarian learning, specifically. It then examines the primary strands of the existing literature and identifies areas for future research. The final section introduces the following two contributions to this three-article symposium.