Media Reports of Coup d’etat and Democratic Attitude in Neighboring Countries

This study examines the impact of the occurrence of a military coup on the democratic attitudes of citizens in neighboring countries. Using nationally representative survey from multiple countries and the identification strategy of the unexpected event during survey design, we show that those exposed to the information about coup are more likely to support democracy. The effect size is comparable across countries—whose economic and ethno-linguistic conditions considerably differ—and respondent characteristics. The results cannot be explained by citizens’ concern about their future economic instability, learning about poor performance of military regimes, or media bias. These results could make an important contribution to our understanding of the diffusion of coups across countries that has long been discussed in the literature.