Public Support for Patriotic Education Under Authoritarianism: Evidence from Russia

Do citizens in autocracies support the politicization of mass education? Authoritarian regimes can attempt to increase their legitimacy and stifle dissent by redesigning educational content to emphasize patriotic values. The success of such efforts depends, in part, on the support of society. However, we have no empirical tests of how citizens in autocracies perceive efforts to promote pro-regime narratives in the classroom. In this paper, we study Russians’ attitudes towards the dramatic expansion of patriotic education following the invasion of Ukraine. Drawing on online survey experiments conducted as reforms to Russian education unfolded, we find strong support for expanding patriotic education, regardless of the justifications offered. This support remains unchanged even when respondents are presented with a variety of different critiques of expanding patriotic education. The results suggest that authoritarian deepening may enjoy the consent of the governed.