Coups are making a comeback

The recent coup d’état in Gabon marks the latest casualty of the “coup contagion” spreading across the African continent. Given the frenetic pace of the minute-by-minute news cycle of the social media era, it’s easy to lose track of longer-term trends. Sure, it feels like there have been more coups than average lately, but is that just availability and vividness bias talking – humans’ known tendency to pay more attention to more recent, more prominent, and more sensational information than that which is less so?

No, it’s not just your imagination — coups are making a comeback.