What is a Coup D’Etat?

In a time where the term Coup d’etat is thrown around wildly in the news, scholars need to take a moment to define what this means. Coups are illegitimate changes in power that disrupt existing political orders and reshape the direction of governance toward new forms of authority. Whether the coups of Chad and Guinea or the French Revolution, the short-term effects of these events can have long-lasting implications for societal structures and governance.

A coup d’etat involves the sudden seizure of a country’s government by a small group, characterized by its membership in a military elite. The coup aims to control the state’s primary governmental centers of command, decision making, and administration, including the armed forces and police. It can be a bloodless process that replaces an existing regime with little violence, or it may spark civil war and chaos. International reactions to a coup range from condemnation and sanctions to tacit support depending on geopolitical interests.

The coup d’etat can tip a country into authoritarianism and increase levels of repression and military involvement in politics. It can also leave behind a legacy of instability, which has lasting effects for a country. While research shows that the removal of dictatorships increases the likelihood of democratization, this is largely dependent on how democratic the country was to begin with. The term dictatorship was originally coined to describe the type of personal regime founded by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799 (18 Brumaire) and later inherited by his grandson, who became Napoleon III in 1851. This new form of dictatorship was known as Caesarism, based on the concept of the Caesarian dictator as the pacifier of classes, above parties and other political entities, restorer of stability and the unity of the nation, and interpreter and incarnation of popular will.