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
As to why ordinary soldiers join the coup, there’s a few reasons. The prominent ones is that their officers have cultivated a local power base where they, not the central government, provides money and food for their troops (and sometimes even the local population). This was really popular with the Romans during their numerous civil wars, but you can also see this in modern coups like in Africa and Latin America.
The second is that a lot of enlisted men don’t have much autonomy. Yes soldiers can resist and not participate in orders that are either illegal or against the state, but when all of your direct superiors are on board there’s a lot of pressure (from both a societal pov and because you’ll be arrested) to follow them. And if pretty much everyone in your regiment is doing the coup you’re going to be doing it too.
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