Failed Coup

A failed coup (or coup attempt) occurs when conspirators try to overthrow an incumbent government through an extra-constitutional seizure of power but fail to take or hold the key levers of the state: the executive, security forces, broadcast media, and capital infrastructure. Political scientists Jonathan Powell and Clayton Thyne, whose widely cited coup dataset defines a coup as an "illegal and overt" attempt by elites within the state apparatus to unseat the sitting executive, classify an attempt as failed if the plotters do not hold power for at least seven days.

Failed coups often share recurring features: fragmentation within the armed forces, loss of the element of surprise, civilian mobilization against the plotters, rapid condemnation by foreign governments, and the survival or quick reappearance of the targeted leader. Outcomes for the incumbent regime vary, but a common pattern is post-coup consolidation: purges of the officer corps, mass arrests, expanded emergency powers, constitutional changes, and crackdowns on opposition media, judiciary, and civil society.

Notable examples include:

• The August 1991 attempt by hardline Soviet officials against Mikhail Gorbachev, which collapsed within three days and accelerated the dissolution of the USSR.
• The February 1981 "23-F" assault on Spain's Cortes by Lt. Col. Antonio Tejero, defused after King Juan Carlos I publicly opposed it.
• The 15 July 2016 attempt in Turkey against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, followed by a state of emergency and mass dismissals of military, judicial, and academic personnel.
• The 2002 attempt against Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, which briefly installed Pedro Carmona before Chávez returned within 48 hours.

International responses are shaped by instruments such as the African Union's Lomé Declaration (2000) and the OAS Inter-American Democratic Charter (2001), both of which provide for suspension of member states whose governments come to power by unconstitutional change—creating reputational and material costs that can deter plotters or isolate any who briefly succeed.