The modern bureaucratic state apparatus has, as Max Weber noted at the beginning of the 20th century, "through its internal rationalised structure [...] replaced 'revolutions' with 'coups d'état'". This finding has lost none of its topicality. What is more, we are currently experiencing another momentous shift. In Europe, as in the United States, the classic coup d'état is being replaced by the successive transformation of the constitution in the form of its erosion from within, the dynamic erosion of the rule of law and the separation of powers as a whole by elected governments. "Democratic regression today begins at the ballot box," write Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt in 'How Democracies Die'. At the same time, there are current variants of military coups, for example in West Africa.
Questions with a view to Europe, the United States, West Africa and South America
The Mosse Lectures aim to shed light on the forms of coups d'état from a historical and systematic perspective and ask about the cultural shifts in power that accompany them. What significance does the coup d'état have in times of a general "return of authoritarianism" and a recultivation of masculinity? What role does the rise of the tech elite play in the weakening of democratic institutions? What new perspectives can a postcolonial view of coups d'état open up? And can the undermining of democracies be contained in time by identifying and visualising patterns? The Mosse Lectures pose these questions with a view to Europe, the United States, West Africa and South America. This semester, the Mosse Lectures will be supplemented by an accompanying programme on coups d'état in film, which will be shown in cooperation with the Zeughauskino at the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin on five evenings in January and February 2026.
Date
To kick off the Mosse Lectures "Coups d'état. Between Putsch and Constitutional Coup" on 4 December, legal scholar Anna-Bettina Kaiser will explore the question of whether the highly diverse manifestations of current constitutional crises around the world herald a return of the coup d'état under the title "Coup d'état, state of emergency, regression".
- Name of the Event: “Coup d'état, state of emergency, regression”
- Time and place: 4 December 2025, 7.15 pm,
- Location: Senatssaal of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10117 Berlin