Coups in the World, 1950-Present

This page provides access to the ongoing data project I have with Clayton Thyne, as well as a more general overview of basic aspects of the data.  We define coups as "illegal and overt attempts by the military or other elites within the state apparatus to unseat the sitting executive," and successes as episodes in which the perpetrators control power for at least 7 days.  All data on this page are updated continuously.  We attempt to update the data as soon as possible, so I will add a disclaimer that any coded events that are ongoing should be treated as tentative.  I strongly encourage anyone with comments, questions, or concerns with the data to contact me.

Powell, Jonathan & Clayton Thyne. 2011. Global Instances of Coups from 1950-Present. Journal of Peace Research 48(2):249-259. Click here for Codebook, Appendices, & Replication Data.
List of coups by country (txt). 2=Successful; 1=Failed. Stata: insheet using http://www.uky.edu/~clthyn2/coup_data/powell_thyne_coups_final.txt, clear
List of coups by country(ccode)-year (txt). Stata: insheet using http://www.uky.edu/~clthyn2/coup_data/powell_thyne_ccode_year.txt
Original candidate list (txt). Stata: insheet using http://www.uky.edu/~clthyn2/coup_data/candidate_dataset.txt
Please contact us for questions regarding excluded events that are not included in the original candidate list.
Codebook (pdf).
The Data in the News/Blogosphere
Bell, Curtis, & Jonathan Powell.  Turkey's coup attempt was unusual..." Monkey Cage/Washington Post. July 22, 2016.

Economist. Putsch and Pull. July 21, 2016.

Widodo, Setyardi. Meredam Kudeta. Business Indonesia. July 20, 2016.

Johnson, Steve. Coups becoming rarer, but exact a high price. Financial Times. July 19, 2016.

McCarthy, James. Everything you need to know about a military coup. Wales Online. July 16, 2016.

Friedman, Uri. Is a Coup Taking Place in Brazil? The Atlantic. May 2, 2016.

Daniel Buarque. Impeachment fica for a de base sobre golpes.”  Folha de Sao Paulo. May 14, 2016.

Elischer, Sebastian. Taking stock of 'good coups' in Africa. Monkey Cage/Washington Post. May 18, 2015.

Verner, Robin. La moitié des coups d'etat se terminent comme au Burundi: par un échec. Slate (France). May 15, 2015.

Noyes, Alexander. Did Burundi just have a 'good coup'? Monkey Cage/Washington Post. May 14, 2015.

Smith, Jeffrey, & Alexander Noyes. Gambia's longtime dictator isn't going anywhere any time soon. Monkey Cage/Washington Post. February 4, 2015.     I offered a brief response here.

Kim, Nam Kyu, How economic shocks matter for coups. Monkey Cage/Washington Post. September 23, 2014.

Kim Yi Dionne. There wasn't a coup in Lesotho, but will there be? Monkey Cage/Washington Post. June 25, 2014.

Joshua Keating. The Good Coup. The Nation (Thailand). June 7, 2014.

Joshua Keating. Should we always oppose military coups? Slate. June 5, 2014.

Jonathan Powell. Will Thailand's dramatic coup actually fix anything? Monkey Cage/Washington Post. May 29, 2014.
Descriptive Data and Trends
Coup Attempts and Successes, 1950-2014
Cold War Coup Attempts (1950-1989)
Total Coup Attempts after the Cold War, 1990-2014
An Onion classic...
Jay Ulfelder. How Thailand's military coup could harm the country for years to come. Business Insider. May 27, 2014.

Uri Friedman. The Thailand Exception: Are coups a thing of the past? The Atlantic. May 23, 2014.

Jonathan Powell. The Military in Politics: Complications of Counting. Lawyers, Guns & Money. May 20, 2014.

Andrea Kendall-Taylor & Erica Frantz. Autocrats now more vulnerable to being ousted by revolt. Monkey Cage/Washington Post. April 9, 2014. (Not our data, but really cool and worth a read).

Max Fisher. Would things be different in Egypt if the US had called it a coup? Washington Post. August 16, 2013.

Ozan Varol. Egypt's non-democratic coup d'etat. Opinio Juris. July 7, 2013.

Max Fisher. Beyond Aid: Why it matters if the US called what happened in Egypt a coup. Washington Post. July 10, 2013.

Clayton Thyne. What Can Research on Coups Tell us about Egypt? The Monkey Cage. July 9, 2013.

Robert Farley & Clayton Thyne. Foreign Entanglements (on Egyptian Coup). (video) bloggingheads.tv. July 8, 2013.

Max Nisen. Coups d'etat have totally gone out of style. Business Insider. July 3, 2013.