# What makes some countries prone to coup d'etats? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 14, 2019, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-some-countries-prone-to-coup-detats/827750 "2019-01-14T19:05:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-some-countries-prone-to-coup-detats/827750/21 "2019-01-17T02:27:04Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > What role does injustice or poverty play? If the dictator is a billionaire and the people are starving, I don’t know if that leads to a coup or not. Not the way you meant, but I think poverty plays a role. That in a country where almost everyone is poor, opportunities for advancement are practically non-existent, and the only source of wealth is squeezing the populace (or controlling the few profitable extraction-export industries), the police/gendarmes/military is one of the few ways for poor nobodies to have a stab at wealth. Granted being a patrolman or private at the bottom of the totem pole sucks, but it still doesn’t suck quite as much as being an impoverished slum dweller. There’s always some graft to be had, you get the fringe benefit of being one of the bullies instead of the bullied, and if you can climb the ladder the graft and status becomes richer. This guarantees that regardless of who’s running things at the top, the muscle to keep the peons in line will be there. It’s when the rank and file grunts desert and throw their lot in with the peasants that revolution is imminent. ---
**Author:** ![JB99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/439d5e/32.png) [@JB99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JB99)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2019, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-some-countries-prone-to-coup-detats/827750/22 "2019-01-18T10:51:33Z")
Poverty can be related to coups, but it is a relatively weak motivator. It does not necessarily follow that poverty itself is an impetus for a coup, largely because (A) a country can be poor but politically stable and (B) coups are usually perpetrated by the upper-level military types. If the great mass of proletariat peasants overthrows the government, we are technically talking about a revolution and not a coup. Political disorder, corruption, and insecurity are all major predictors of coup attempts, but the single biggest predictor might be an over-emphasized faith in the military. Most of these countries are very divided and chaotic, and so people begin to believe that a military dictatorship would be preferable to the otherwise corrupt or inept government. Poverty is a driver only so far as it contributes to corruption and social disorder. There’s an idea out there called “relative deprivation theory” which claims disorder and violence can increase when the impoverished feel like they are being denied opportunities. (Eg “People around me have greater wealth and luxuries, and I am being unfairly denied these same things, so I will join a terrorist group in order to get what I think I deserve”). If this hypothesis is correct, the dissatisfaction may drive crime, corruption, class warfare, terrorism, and other forms of disorder. This disorder would then _in turn_ make people support a military coup if it promises to restore order. I also agree very much with the idea that people might look to a coup as a way to upset the hierarchy and move up in the world, under certain circumstances. We saw this very clearly in Iraq. After the 17 July coup, the military became the ruling class in Iraq and belonging to a military family became the key to social mobility. ---
**Author:** ![Littleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ccd318/32.png) [@Littleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Littleman)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2019, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-some-countries-prone-to-coup-detats/827750/23 "2019-01-20T03:50:16Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Putschs, military overthrows, whatever name you use. When General So-and-so’s soldiers suspend the legislature and/or arrest legislators, troops occupy the television and radio stations, opposition presses are shut down and their editors and reporters arrested, etc. Either the President is deposed, or alternatively it’s the perpetually re-elected President of a one-party state who’s doing all this. > > Latin American countries like Bolivia or Argentina used to be infamous for this. Today it’s probably Pakistan that’s the perennial winner of the World’s Shakiest Democracy award. And of course there are countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia where there’s no real semblance of democracy to begin with and this is simply how power politics plays out. > > I’m too cynical about human nature to believe that it’s because of our “culture of respecting democracy”. I’m more inclined to believe that there are impersonal forces that somehow make respecting democracy work in some countries and not work in others. My tentative hypothesis is that this happens in countries where military rule is part and parcel with a corrupt spoils system- that it literally _pays_ to do this. But I don’t have any cites to back this up. Bottom line, this happens when there are a large number of people with little or nothing to lose. Keep almost everyone fed, with houses and cars and in relative safety and you can perpetuate virtually any form of government you’d like. Also especially if your soldiers are among those disgruntled poor. Fail to provide a decent stable life for most of your soldiers and they will take it by force. ---
**Author:** ![Littleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ccd318/32.png) [@Littleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Littleman)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2019, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-some-countries-prone-to-coup-detats/827750/24 "2019-01-20T04:03:25Z")
Expanding a little, they are carried out by generals and such because if the soldiers arent provided for, the general can easily garnish their support. If the soldiers believe the chance is higher of improving there lives than making them worse. That’s all it takes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-some-countries-prone-to-coup-detats/827750.md?page=1)