This article reviews how scholars use learning as an analytical concept across the political science and public policy literature. Three questions guide our discussion: (1) What do political actors in policy learn about (e.g. ideas or policy instruments)? (2) Who learns from whom and for what reason? And finally, (3) How does learning happen against the background of organizational and political realities? Our perspective offers an original contribution by synthesizing key concepts and empirical challenges of the learning research.

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and a senior fellow at UC Berkeley. His research interests cover policy coordination and integration, the politics of digital public policy, health policy, and federalism as well as multilevel governance. His research has been published in leading political science and public policy journals as well as with major university presses. More information can be found here: www.philipptrein.com Thenia Vagionaki is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Political Studies at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. Her research focuses on policy learning and EU studies. Her most recent work has been published in Political Studies Review and with Palgrave Macmillan.

I would like to thank Martino Maggetti and Philipp Trein for their feedback on earlier versions of this article. I warmly thank the editors of the International Review of Public Policy and two anonymous referees for their valuable and very helpful comments.

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