Coups and framing: how do militaries justify the illegal seizure of power?

The Myth of the Coup Contagion

“…14 And fewer than 30 percent of all coups from 1975 to 1989 received any international condemnation from the West at all, even when taking into account the statements made by all Western governments and liberal multilateral organizations including the United Nations and IMF. 15 But late in the Cold War, an international norm against coups began to develop as a byproduct of the burgeoning prodemocratic norms taking root around the same time.…”

Coup d’état and a democratic signal: The connection between protests and coups after the Cold War

“…These serve as direct means of legitimization. In these statements, the orchestrators of the coup present various rationales to justify their act, invoking factors such as the performance of the economy, the corruption of the previous regime, national defense, ideological arguments, and the organizational interests of the military (Yukawa, Hidaka & Kushima, 2020).…”

“…Yukawa, Hidaka & Kushima (2020) scrutinized whether the military used rhetoric invoking democracy in post-coup speeches and public statements. According to their data, while the military attempted to use democracy to justify their acts in 19 out of the 64 successful coup attempts (29.7%) conducted during the Cold War, this increased to 25 out of 42 (59.5%) for successful coup attempts launched after the Cold War (Figure 2).…”