Regime change
The term regime change could theoretically be applied to any change of regime, but is often applied specifically to regime changes influenced by a foreign state. The foreign influence aiming to cause regime change may vary from minor support to a preferred party in the country to outright military invasion.
One prominently stated goal of regime changes may be to cause more democratic regimes. This may be based on the model of Germany and Japan becoming democratic countries after WWII. However, this may ignore less politically correct variables such as average country IQ, which has been argued to influence to chance of country becoming a stable democracy. See the Democracy article.
Regime changes may, instead of causing prosperous democracies, be followed by devastating civil wars, mass deaths, greatly worsened living conditions, and mass migrations.
See also
- Color revolutions
- Arab Spring
- Democratic peace theory
- Civil war - On "regime changes" under certain circumstances increasing the risk of civil wars.