Why do generals attempting to coup always storm the palace? What happens next? Why do ordinary soldiers follow them? Are they in on the plot?
In: Economics
A “coup d’etat” is defined as
> a sudden, violent, and unlawful seizure of power from a government
So it needs to change who’s in power, be violent, sudden, and not the previously agreed way that the transfer should happen to count as a coup.
The interesting things about governments is they are made up, and beacuse they are made up there’s no real rules.
Whoever is in change is who we collectively agree is in charge, and that’s all there really is to it.
So you don’t need the army or generals to be on your side for it to work, they just need to not do anything about your sudden rise to power. That might be beacuse they like you more than the last guy, or fear you and your influence.
You also don’t need to storm the palace, but most of the time people won’t agree you are in charge if the last guy is still going around saying they are in charge. The easiest way to handle that is to kill or imprison anyone else who people could say is in charge.
You could do that while they are out and about, but theres also a symbolic gesture in storming the building where they are supposed to rule from.
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