Opposition learning in the Middle East and North Africa: Comparative findings on mechanisms, sources, and effects

The article summarizes and discusses the key comparative findings of the special issue (SI) on opposition learning in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). First, it examines the MENA region’s authoritarian and hybrid institutional contexts in which opposition learning unfolds. Second, it thoroughly engages with the framework on the mechanisms of opposition learning (upgrading, isomorphism, internal, and external diffusion), the SI’s central innovation, highlighting the importance of the active, voluntary upgrading and isomorphism mechanisms for the broad array of opposition actors, ranging from Moroccan football ultras, Algerian feminist collectives, Lebanese self-help groups, Turkish academics and journalists to human rights associations, and Iraqi and Moroccan leftist political parties. It also stresses the importance of the sequencing logic of learning mechanisms. Third, the article reassesses the sources and effects of opposition learning, stressing that learning from failure, that is, preventing one’s own or others’ mistakes, is more common than learning from success. Finally, it suggests detailed avenues for future research.