Between Democratizing, Stabilizing and Protecting Incumbents

Download or read book Between Democratizing, Stabilizing and Protecting Incumbents written by Franziska Hohlstein and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: Coup attempts, as the recent ones in Turkey (2016), Sudan (2019) or Mali (2020) constitute one of the biggest risks to democracy and regional stability. In the past decades, many ROs including the EU, AU or OAS have taken a strong position against coups, establishing a global anti-coup norm in ROs. Yet the responses of ROs to coups are diverse and apparently contradictory. The thesis examines which role ROs play after coups. For doing so, it is analysed when and how ROs respond to coups (research question 1), which factors influence the strength of their responses (research question 2) and under which conditions ROs strive for different post-coup solutions, e.g. the reinstatement of the ousted government or new elections (research question 3). Coups violate basic democratic standards in ROs, but they also constitute a risk to regional stability. It is argued that when confronted with a coup, ROs take both aspects into account and adjust their responses accordingly. Using a mixed-methods approach, which combines quantitative and qualitative techniques, the plausibility of the argument is tested. The results confirm the initial expectation: The more detrimental a coup is for the state of democracy in a country and the higher its risk of destabilizing the region, the more decisively ROs will respond to the event.