IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/ginixx/v41y2015i1p158-182.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Institutional Coup-Proofing on Coup Attempts and Coup Outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • Tobias Böhmelt
  • Ulrich Pilster

Abstract

Coup-proofing pertains to political leaders’ strategies that will prevent groups inside or outside the state apparatus from seizing power via a coup d’état. One particular form of these strategies divides a country’s military into rivaling organizations, thereby creating an artificial balance between and structural obstacles for the armed forces. Despite the general claim that this institutional coup-proofing is indeed effective, a recent empirical study does not obtain evidence for a negative impact on the risk of coup attempts or coup outcomes. The authors take this finding as a motivation for their re-evaluation of the effect of institutional coup-proofing on coup risk and outcomes. By developing an argument that rests on the concepts of collective action and polarization, it is contended that institutional coup-proofing and coups are characterized by a U-shaped relationship: Institutional coup-proofing is likely to lower the likelihood of coup onsets and successful outcomes, yet only until a tipping point of about two equally strong military organizations. After this turning point, the risk of coup onset as well as coup success may increase again. Using time-series cross-section data for 1975--1999, the authors find strong and robust support for their claims in terms of coup onset, but not coup outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Tobias Böhmelt & Ulrich Pilster, 2015. "The Impact of Institutional Coup-Proofing on Coup Attempts and Coup Outcomes," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(1), pages 158-182, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ginixx:v:41:y:2015:i:1:p:158-182
    DOI: 10.1080/03050629.2014.906411
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/03050629.2014.906411
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/03050629.2014.906411?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Martin Gassebner & Jerg Gutmann & Stefan Voigt, 2016. "When to expect a coup d’état? An extreme bounds analysis of coup determinants," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 169(3), pages 293-313, December.
    2. Roya Izadi, 2022. "State Security or Exploitation: A Theory of Military Involvement in the Economy," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 66(4-5), pages 729-754, May.
    3. Bjørnskov, Christian & Pfaff, Katharina, 2021. "Differences matter: The effect of coup types on physical integrity rights," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    4. Erica De Bruin, 2021. "Mapping coercive institutions: The State Security Forces dataset, 1960–2010," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 58(2), pages 315-325, March.
    5. Erica De Bruin, 2018. "Preventing Coups d’état," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 62(7), pages 1433-1458, August.
    6. Cottiero, Christina & Hafner-Burton, Emily & Haggard, Stephan & Prather, Lauren & Schneider, Christina J, 2024. "Illiberal Regimes and International Organizations," Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, Working Paper Series qt2bx6b98g, Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, University of California.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:ginixx:v:41:y:2015:i:1:p:158-182. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/GINI20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.