Soft coup
A soft coup is a conspiracy theory that argue that a national leader may have been the victim of a coup d'état attempt, or that a legal removal of said leader would have been a coup. Those conspiracy theories are popular among populist leaders, such as those in Latin America.
Context[edit]
Latin American populists seek power centralization, but do so under the pretense of improving democracy. Their rationale is that democracy would be a system where the general will must be absolute. The populist leader is described as the representative of the general will, by virtue of having been elected in elections. As a result, it is reasoned that the will of the leader equals the general will, and that any limits on the will of the leader would be a limit to the general will itself.[1] The opposition to the leader is thus treated as an act against democracy. This is used to justify persecution of the opposition, forced nationalizations and limits to the freedom of the press.[2] This notion of democracy is opposed to the one held in the United States, which considers instead that rulers must have limits to their power.[2] It also conflicts with minority rights.[3]
Several military coups took place in South America during the 20th century, in particular during the Cold War. There is a strong popular perception of those coups as highly negative events. The comparison is then used as an appeal to emotion. To further the comparison, the supporters of the populist leaders attribute the old coups to generalized authors intead of specific ones (such as the press, the private sector of the economy, the judiciary and imperialism), and then claim that the alleged coups would be attempted by those same authors.[4]
Notable cases[edit]
The impeachments of Fernando Lugo in Paraguay and Dilma Rousseff in Brazil are usual magnets of coup claims. Although a coup is an illegal action carried out by a small armed force,[4] those impeachments are described by populist leaders as coups anyway. Paraguay was temporarily removed from the Mercosur as a result of the impeachment, as the other governors considered that democracy had been interrupted in the country. This allowed the remaining countries to incorporate Venezuela into the bloc, which Paraguay opposed.[5]
References[edit]
- ^ Kaiser, p. 53
- ^ a b Kaiser, p. 55
- ^ Kaiser, p. 56
- ^ a b "When a "coup" is not a coup". The Economist. April 9, 2016. Retrieved December 26, 2016.
- ^ "Mercosur suspends Paraguay over Lugo impeachment". BBC. June 29, 2012. Retrieved October 13, 2016.
Bibliography[edit]
- Kaiser, Axel (2016). El engaño populista [The populist lie] (in Spanish). Colombia: Ariel. ISBN 978-987-3804-39-7.
