Reshuffling and Regime Change Coups in Dictatorships

This data introduces an important distinction to the coup literature, differentiating between reshuffling coups, which change the leader atop a regime but leave the regime structure intact, and regime change coups, which change the leader and lead to a new autocratic regime. Data on both attempted and successful coups from 1970-2010 is available. Below you can download the data, codebook, as well as descriptions of each case and the rationale for our coding decision. This version of the data is used in “Terrorism and the Fate of Dictators”, published in World Politics with Deniz Aksoy and Joe Wright. Please cite the following paper if you use this data: Aksoy, Deniz, David B. Carter and Joseph G. Wright. 2015. “Terrorism and the Fate of Dictators.” World Politics 67(3): 423-468.