Ebook The Democratic Coup d'État Ozan O Varol 9780190626020 Books

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The term coup d'état--French for stroke of the state--brings to mind coups staged by power-hungry generals who overthrow the existing regime, not to democratize, but to concentrate power in their own hands as dictators. We assume all coups look the same, smell the same, and present the same threats to democracy.

It's a powerful, concise, and self-reinforcing idea. It's also wrong.

In The Democratic Coup d'État, Ozan Varol advances a simple, yet controversial, argument Sometimes, a democracy is established through a military coup. Covering events from the Athenian Navy's stance in 411 B.C. against a tyrannical home government, to coups in the American colonies that ousted corrupt British governors, to twentieth-century coups that toppled dictators and established democracy in countries as diverse as Guinea-Bissau, Portugal, and Colombia, the book takes the reader on a gripping journey.

Connecting the dots between these neglected events, Varol weaves a balanced narrative that challenges everything we thought we knew about military coups. In so doing, he tackles several baffling questions How can an event as undemocratic as a military coup lead to democracy? Why would imposing generals-armed with tanks and guns and all-voluntarily surrender power to civilian politicians? What distinguishes militaries that help build democracies from those that destroy them?

Varol's arguments made headlines across the globe in major media outlets and were cited critically in a public speech by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Written for a general audience, this book will entertain, challenge, and provoke, but more importantly, serve as a reminder of the imperative to question the standard narratives about our world and engage with all ideas, no matter how controversial.

Ebook The Democratic Coup d'État Ozan O Varol 9780190626020 Books

"Ozan's thesis will undoubtedly become the consensus. You'll finish the book and ask how coups d'etats could have been understood any other way. Smart and precise writing punctuated with thoughtful personal anecdotes. I am looking forward to more from this this author!"

Product details Paperback 248 pages Publisher Oxford University Press; 1 edition (November 7, 2017) Language English ISBN-10 019062602X

Tags : The Democratic Coup d'État [Ozan O. Varol] on . The term <em>coup d'état</em>--French for stroke of the state--brings to mind coups staged by power-hungry generals who overthrow the existing regime,Ozan O. Varol,The Democratic Coup d'État,Oxford University Press,019062602X,Comparative Politics,History Theory,Public Policy - Military Policy,Coups d'aetat - History,Coups d'âetat;History.,Democratization - History,Democratization;History.,POLITICAL SCIENCE / Government / Comparative,History,Non-Fiction,POLITICAL SCIENCE / Comparative Politics,POLITICAL SCIENCE / History Theory,POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Military Policy,Political Science,Political Science/History Theory - General,Political Science/Political Ideologies - Democracy,Politics/International Relations,Politics/Intl Relations,Scholarly/Graduate,UNIVERSITY PRESS,United States

The Democratic Coup d'État Ozan O Varol 9780190626020 Books Reviews :

The Democratic Coup d'État Ozan O Varol 9780190626020 Books Reviews

• Professor Varol goes against the popular notion that a military coup d'etat is a means to unseat a democracy. He presents historical events to support his argument that sometimes a military institution is the vehicle to establish a democracy in a regime change. His examples of real world regime changes are convincing enough to make his point. The Carnation Revolution is the gold standard for his thesis. It is a very good read and a convincing argument. I delved into his research in an attempt to make a comparative analysis with the coup d'etat of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Somewhat similar to the American Revolution, the merchants of Honolulu had the militia of the Hawaiian Kingdom (Honolulu Rifles) on their side in their successful coup d'etat to unseat the ruling constitutional monarch. They also conspired with the U.S. Minister for the landing of the U.S. military at the planned day of their coup. Their goal was to get the Hawaiian Islands to be annexed by the U.S. and become a democracy. If it were not for the volunteer militia (Honolulu Rifles) and the U.S. Military, the merchants could not have succeeded in a regime change from constitutional monarchy to a democracy (in my opinion anyway).
• The Democratic Coup d’Etat opens with a simple statement of its controversial premise “Sometimes democracy is established through a military coup.” In the ensuing 200 pages, Ozan Varol’s new book presents a nuanced examination of the factors that comprise a military coup and how it may (may) result democracy the makeup of the military forces, the relationship between the military and the governing dictatorship, the relationship between the populace and the military after the coup. Anyone interested in the creation and maintenance of functioning democracies will find valuable insights within its pages.
  One of the first striking things about the book is encountering the sheer number of dictatorships in recent world history. The book is rife with examples illustrating different causes and outcomes of military coups, ranging from the recent events in Turkey to Burkina Faso in 2014, Romania under Ceausescu, Portugal in 1974, Peru in 1975, Brazil in ’45, Guatemala in ’44, and many others.
  But the events of the Arab Spring provide the most prominent touchstone in the book. Partially inspired by the events in Cairo in 2011, where the Egyptian military toppled of longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak following months of popular protests against the regime, the book frequently returns to this recent example of how the military may play a role in both installing and overthrowing a democratically-elected government.
  Varol’s description of the factors that create a military coup are fascinating. I had never before considered the difference between a “military state” and a “police state,” and how that affects civilians’ attitudes to the armed forces. Another interesting chapter analyzes how a military decides to support or crush a burgeoning democratic movement, comparing volunteer military forces to “citizen-soldiers” serving mandatory conscription and likely to have closer ties to members of a popular uprising.
  While reading the first sections of the book, I wondered what lessons democratic activists could learn from this history. A late chapter, “Between Scylla and Charbydis,” provides a helpful analysis. There, Varol describes the difficult passage civilians must navigate in a post-coup society the military will demand from the new government certain “exit benefits,” such as structuring the new civilian government to grant the military greater power in domestic affairs, in exchange for handing control back to the people. If civilians wish to negotiate against the military’s demands, they will have to do so without provoking a heavy-handed backlash from the armed forces. Varol suggests civilians can take anticipatory action for these circumstances and describes bargaining positions, such as “sunset dates” that gradually reduce military involvement in politics. Subsequent chapters in the book further describe this kind of high-stakes society-wide hostage negotiation, as well as the organizing that civilian political parties must do to gain and maintain popular support and establish a balanced civil-military relationship.
  The book is valuable not just for its analysis of the ways militaries interact with democratic institutions, but for its description of how civilians can build democratic institutions that withstand antidemocratic forces and prevent military coups. Following foreign events like the Arab Spring from afar can be difficult, but Varol breaks down military involvement in these uprisings in clear and engaging chapters. The Democratic Coup d’Etat is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the dynamics underlying contemporary democracy.
• Ozan provides a well researched, thoroughly convincing argument. With solid examples from numerous perspectives, his title thesis becomes very difficult to refute. My only criticism is that the prose leans academic. To someone very interested in the topic, this is an engaging read. My struggle with this book is that I didn't find the fundamental thesis difficult to believe. While the examples provided were still new (to me) and interesting, I did not get to enjoy the frequent "aha" moments that I desire when reading nonfiction.
  If you look at a question like, "Why would a military leader willingly hand power over to the people after a successful coup?" and think "I have to learn more!" then this book is for definitely for you. It will address that, and many other thought provoking questions on the subject.
• This book takes you through a well documented and riveting journey that covers coups throughout global history. The journey, and topic, seem rather timely with the current global climate as we see countries around the world edging closer and closer to authoritarian practices (or fully embracing those practices with shameless abandon).
• A fantastic, well-written account supporting a counter-intuitive thesis with a catalogue of insightful historical vignettes in support. Varol combines a deep, at times first-hand understanding of the social forces that influence political and military actors in struggling states with a storyteller's wit and clarity. His book beautifully weaves together seemingly unrelated events into a coherent whole, distilling the complexities of power transitions the world over into a few common themes that support the possibility that, at times, a coup d'état is good for democracy.
• This is a great book by a new author. Ozan Varol takes a very complex and nuanced topic, pulls it apart, and eloquently explains how the default conventional wisdom of assuming all coups are bad, is wrong. This is a fresh perspective, written in a compelling and accessible way, where you don’t need a political science or law degree to understand the argument.
• Ozan's thesis will undoubtedly become the consensus. You'll finish the book and ask how coups d'etats could have been understood any other way. Smart and precise writing punctuated with thoughtful personal anecdotes. I am looking forward to more from this this author!