Paper short abstract:

This paper draws on ethnographic research on Fiji to challenge assumptions about the relationship between coups and political unwellness.

Paper long abstract:

Coup d'etats lend themselves readily to diagnoses of political unwellness, assaulting the principles, processes, and practices entailed in democracy (the USA and Myanmar being recent examples). Political science research with its focus on how to coup-proof states and overcome democratic deficits can therefore be seen as doing important healing work in respect of this unwellness. But what of other perspectives and lived experiences of coups - those which regard them as methods of hope and wellness? Drawing on the case study of Fiji, I argue for a pluralist reimagining and analysis of coups which is able to take account of the ways in which they both rupture and resonate.