State Level Corruption and Military Coups in Africa

Some literature on African underdevelopment and political instability has identified corruption as the cause of the continent’s underdevelopment and military takeovers. The analyses of this study were focused essentially on determining if there is a causal relationship between the level of state corruption in Africa and the occurrence of military coups. In order to ascertain the nature of the relationship, a series of multivariate logistic regression models were developed, with state corruption as the primary variable of interest and with other socio-political and economic variables as possible intervening variables. The bivariate logistic regression analysis showed evidence of a statistical relationship between the level of state corruption in Africa and the occurrence of military coups. However, when the relationship was tested for possible interference of state levels of democratic accountability, socio-economic conditions, government stability, ethnic tensions, involvement in internal and external conflicts, military involvement in politics, the nature of regime origin, and state political transition.