ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of some key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book is an effort to understand the role of the public sphere, legitimation, and ideology in contemporary authoritarian regimes. It examines how the ideological elements interact with one another to bolster or potentially undermine authoritarian rule and with broader remarks on situating ideologies in the authoritarian public sphere. It explains the elements in the contexts of North Korea, Myanmar, and China. The book elaborates a theoretical framework to understand how authoritarian ideologies operate to manipulate and circumscribe public discourse. It explores the concept of an authoritarian public sphere and examines the state infrastructure typical in its construction. The book discusses how the concept can help us understand three theoretical issue areas important to the study of authoritarianism, namely nonviolent resistance, state repression, and the advent of social networking and the internet.
