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Military Coups and Political Development: Some Lessons From Ghana and Nigeria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

Edward Feit
Edward Feit
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts
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Extract

Are the military coups that have shaken Africa recently simply a working-out of personal animosities, are they due to chance, or are they the result of something inherent in the very nature of present-day African political systems? It is to questions such as these that this article is addressed, and to which it seeks to provide tentative answers. Further, if, as will be argued here, the African coups result from something inherently systemic, what conclusions can be drawn at present about Africa's future political development?

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , January 1968 , pp. 179 - 193
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1968

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References

1 Coleman, James S. and Price, Belmont Jr., “The Role of the Military in Sub-Saharan Africa,” in Johnson, John J., ed., The Role of the Military in Underdeveloped Countries (Princeton 1962), 359Google Scholar; Gutteridge, William F., Military Institutions and Power in the New States (New York 1965), 141–44Google Scholar; Finer, S. E., The Man on Horseback (London 1962), 228Google Scholar.

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14 Chap. 7.