October 2022, Volume 33, Issue 4
The Myth of the Coup Contagion
Many fear that coups are making a comeback. While this is not true, one thing is alarming: Anti-coup norms are starting to erode.
Subject: Coups
April 2022, Volume 33, Issue 2
The Freedom House Survey for 2021: Authoritarians on Offense
In 2021, autocrats’ efforts to reshape the global order enabled heavier repression and brazen power grabs, while democracies faltered. Is this a tipping point?
January 2022, Volume 33, Issue 1
Coup in Tunisia: Is Democracy Lost?
President Kais Saied’s power grab has crushed Tunisian democracy, returning the country to the old playbook of Arab dictators past and present.
January 2022, Volume 33, Issue 1
Coup in Tunisia: Why the Military Abandoned Democracy
The country’s armed forces opened the door to democracy, only to help slam it shut a decade later. A desire for prestige and political influence has turned them into an autocrat’s accomplice.
April 2021, Volume 32, Issue 2
Burma: The Generals Strike Back
The military could not bear Aung San Suu Kyi’s enduring popularity and her party’s continued success at the polls. But the generals may have miscalculated how much the people detest them.
October 2019, Volume 30, Issue 4
Sudan’s Uprising: The Fall of a Dictator
Amid mass protests, the personalist autocracy of longtime Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir fell to an April 2019 coup. With the country now being governed by a council composed of both opposition leaders and powerful security- service coupmakers, prospects for democratization remain uncertain.
October 2019, Volume 30, Issue 4
Southeast Asia’s Troubling Elections: Democratic Demolition in Thailand
The military junta that seized power in 2014 finally organized an election in 2019, but with the goal of preventing rather than facilitating a return to civilian rule.
October 2019, Volume 30, Issue 4
Can Egypt’s Democratic Hopes Be Revived?
In 2011–13, the undemocratic political outlook of both secular and Islamist actors helped to ensure the failure of democracy in Egypt. Today, the populace appears to have backed away from democratic demands, yet pockets of resilient activism offer a basis for hope.
January 2017, Volume 28, Issue 1
The Fading of the Anti-Coup Norm
Following the end of the Cold War, an international norm against coups began gaining strength, but it seems to have lost momentum in recent years. What has happened?
October 2008, Volume 19, Issue 4
Thailand Since the Coup
Torn between populism and those who fail to respect democratic limits in combating it, Thailand badly needs to locate a middle ground where the best of its old traditions can help it adjust to the new challenges that it faces.
July 2007, Volume 18, Issue 3
The Decline of the African Military Coup
Since the early 1990s, many African countries have undergone political liberalization, and so far this trend has been accompanied by a significant drop in the incidence of military coups.
July 2001, Volume 12, Issue 3
Francophone Africa in Flux: Ethnicity and Political Crisis in Côte d’Ivoire
Following a military coup in 1999 and flawed and violence-ridden elections in 2000, democracy in Côte d’Ivoire faces an uphill battle against the forces of xenophobia and ethnic chauvinism.
April 1998, Volume 9, Issue 2
African Ambiguities: The Gambia—From Coup to Elections
January 1998, Volume 9, Issue 1
Self-Coups: Peru, Guatemala, and Russia
October 1997, Volume 8, Issue 4
Haiti’s Flagging Transition
January 1997, Volume 8, Issue 1
Paraguay: The Coup That Didn’t Happen
October 1993, Volume 4, Issue 4
Thwarting the Guatemalan Coup
January 1993, Volume 4, Issue 1
Peru’s Presidential Coup
October 1992, Volume 3, Issue 4
Venezuela’s Vulnerable Democracy
January 1992, Volume 3, Issue 1
Old Paradigms & New Openings in Latin America
January 1992, Volume 3, Issue 1
Russia’s Emerging Political Parties
January 1992, Volume 3, Issue 1
Haiti’s Shattered Hopes
Fall 1991, Volume 2, Issue 4
After the Moscow Coup
Fall 1991, Volume 2, Issue 4
Political Corruption: Thailand’s Search for Accountability
Fall 1991, Volume 2, Issue 4
Political Corruption: Nigeria’s Perennial Struggle
Summer 1991, Volume 2, Issue 3
Thailand After the Coup
Fall 1990, Volume 1, Issue 4
Paraguay After Stroessner: Democratizing the One-Party State
Fall 1990, Volume 1, Issue 4
Paraguay After Stroessner: One Step Away from Democracy
Fall 1990, Volume 1, Issue 4
Educating Thai Democracy
Winter 1990, Volume 1, Issue 1
The Struggle Against Noriega
Over the past several years, the world has come to see the crisis in Panama mainly as a confrontation between the United States and Panama's military strongman, General Manuel Antonio Noriega. But this perception – reinforced lately by press reports on last October's failed coup attempt – is badly mistaken.