Differences Matter: The Effect of Coup Types on Physical Integrity Rights

Abstract

What is the effect of coups d’état on repression? Do democracy-inducing, ‘good’ coups increase respect for physical integrity rights? Does it make a difference whether a coup d’état is staged by the military or a civilian leader? We argue that the impact of coups on repression varies with regime type as this determines the relative costs of repression and buying political support. Combining updated panel datasets on democracy and coups d’état from 1960 to 2010, we provide an analysis of the effects of coups on physical integrity rights, differentiating post-coup regime type. We find that post-coup democratization increases respect for physical integrity rights, while it decreases when non-democratic regimes depose democratic regimes through a coup d’état. Furthermore, civilian autocracies are more repressive than military ones after successfully ousting the previous government. These findings imply that differences in regime types do matter in research of coups d’état.

Keywords: Coups, repression, political economy

JEL Classification: D74, P16, P48