Authoritarian Foundations The Mechanisms of Support Behind Authoritarian Takeovers

Sammanfattning: In this study the author builds on previous materials and a statistical comparison between states with successful coup attempts and states without successful coups in an attempt to isolate a series of factors that may have an effect on the outcome of an attempted coup d'état. The isolated factors are then tested on the cases of Gambia, Ghana, Ecuador and Thailand. The five factors that resulted from this study and should be present in all countries with successful coups are: Low level of internationalisation and international interest, Economical instability and widespread poverty, often coupled with accusations of corruption, as well as a rurally or raw materials based production, Undereducated and largely illiterate population with a generally low status and ethnic clashes between themselves, Culturally and historically an authoritarian tradition, Incentives for the army or some other elite to attempt to seize power via a coup. The situation of support on the domestic arena and disinterest internationally is created by an interaction between all of the factors, and leads to a much higher success rate of the attempted coups.