# how do you stage a coup? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 19, 2006, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-stage-a-coup/373299 "2006-09-19T18:08:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ihatepopcountry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d26b3c/32.png) [@ihatepopcountry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ihatepopcountry)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2006, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-stage-a-coup/373299/1 "2006-09-19T18:08:52Z")
I’m watching the news, and I don’t understand quite how this works. In Thailand, who’s leading the military? Is every person in the military now a revolutionary? No constitution? No Law? Is there a parlament that wants the prime minister/pres. removed? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2006, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-stage-a-coup/373299/2 "2006-09-19T18:11:27Z")
The military is being led by the military - when the government loses the confidence of the generals, then the coup goes ahead. Unless it’s a breakaway military faction, but then you’re looking at impending civil war. Best semi-fictional description of this I have read was about Chile, in _House of the Spirits_ by Isabelle Allende. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2006, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-stage-a-coup/373299/3 "2006-09-19T18:38:28Z")
The way it usually works is that some group of high-ranking officers becomes dissatisfied with the existing government and forms a conspiracy to act together to overthrow it. They then round up the president and anyone within the government who supports him, and declare themselves in charge (or appoint a puppet government). Without a nucleus of leadership around which opposition can form, the population is often easily controlled. To work, this depends on the lower ranking officers and soldiers following the orders of their superiors. This means that usually the existing government must be unpopular, if not with the general populace then with the military itself. Sometimes the conspirators don’t have enough support among the military to have the coup succeed. In Venezuela, this happened both in Chávez’s own coup attempt, and the attempt against him, both of which ultimately failed. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2006, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-stage-a-coup/373299/4 "2006-09-19T18:41:42Z")
[QUOTE=ihatepopcountry] Is there a parlament that wants the prime minister/pres. removed? [/QUOTE] It might be mentioned that President Alberto Fujimori of Peru once led an _auto-golpe_ (“self coup”) against his own government. With the support of the military, he disbanded the legislature, and then set up a system that he could control more easily. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2006, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-stage-a-coup/373299/5 "2006-09-19T18:46:07Z")
> [@](#): > > It might be mentioned that President Alberto Fujimori of Peru once led an auto-golpe (“self coup”) against his own government. With the support of the military, he disbanded the legislature, and then set up a system that he could control more easily. Oh, those are common, historically. They date back at least to Caesar, if not earlier, through Hitler, Mussolini, and Palpatine. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-stage-a-coup/373299/6 "2006-09-20T03:34:58Z")
The news stories I’ve read said that Prime Minister Shinawatra held early elections in April after his oppenents accused him of abuse of power. He was probably trying to do what **Colibri** and **Chronos** mentioned, but the courts ruled that these elections were illegal and their results were invalid. They ordered new elections in November, but until then there is no legislature. Apparently the military didn’t want to wait that long. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-stage-a-coup/373299/7 "2006-09-20T03:45:02Z")
A _coup d’etat_ is literally a ‘blow to the State…’ While we often talk about a military coup, there are other kinds. Done properly, a coup can be bloodless and even silent. In a coup a few plotters use their legitimate positions of authority to issue orders that appear to be legitimate, but in fact serve the plot. A military unit is told to ‘secure the airport, prevent any planes from leaving.’ Did that order come from a plotter or a defender of the government? While doing this, they delay, disrupt of cut the lines of command of other people in power who are not with the program. The orders coming from non-plotters follow unusual makeshift routes and sound fishy. One guy has an official telex saying ‘secure the airport.’ The other has a fax that bypassed headquarters, it says ‘open the airport.’ Both sides sit down and have tea together while the brass hats work it out. Meanwhile, the airport is closed. So to answer the OP, hardly anyone in the military thinks they are revolutionaries. They are just doing what they are told by higher authorities. ---
**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-stage-a-coup/373299/8 "2006-09-20T11:55:14Z")
[QUOTE=Colibri] The way it usually works is that some group of high-ranking officers becomes dissatisfied with the existing government and forms a conspiracy to act together to overthrow it. [/QUOTE] A notable exception is Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings in Ghana - not at all high ranking - an interesting guy > **[Jerry Rawlings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Rawlings)** > > Jerry John Rawlings (22 June 1947 – 12 November 2020) was a Ghanaian military officer, aviator, politician, and revolutionary who led the country briefly in 1979 and then from 1981 to 2001. He led a military regime until 1993 and then served two terms as the democratically elected president of Ghana. He was the longest-serving leader in Ghana's history, presiding over the country for 19 years.. Rawlings came to power in Ghana as a flight lieutenant of the Ghana Air Force following a coup d'état... In the Thai case it looks as if it is the ‘establishment’, including the king, against the Prime Minister. Curious, Shinawatra appears to have been robbing Peter to subsidize the peasants - not necessarily a bad idea in a rapidly developing state. ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-stage-a-coup/373299/9 "2006-09-20T19:23:50Z")
First of all, you need a [coup excuse](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junta_(game)#Coup_phase). Bookkeeper - _President for life (or until next coup phase)_