Honestly, I suggest you make democracy a thing. Every 4 years. People won't uprise then, or even make coups, so the only thing you worry about is rebels. Make sure people can protest, or they'll riot instead. Then when a protest happens, you can figure out what they want.
Try to favour all factions a little bit. Make sure people have entertainment. Make sure your military is the one all the way on the bottom of the constitution list because this military is really strong and it's like the US military so rebels are gone faster and people aren't mad. Build a supermax prison and arrest rebels before you kill them if you can. This will basically turn them into normal civilians without making your people mad and you won't lose population.
Another bonus on democracy is cheating. If you're low on votes you can start cheating to gain like an extra 2%-6% of the votes if you're lucky enough. Also, if you're feeling greedy, you can choose a certain skill for your character that will make you get 300% more votes from cheating, but this will also make a lot more rebels, so you might want to refrain. Oh yeah, and make sure everyone can vote, or everyone will just get really pissed and start rioting. Just make sure you don't cheat if you don't have to.
And another bonus is that obviously unlike the US, you can go for as many terms as you want, meaning that you can stay in power forever without any coups or uprisings. Just remember that there will always be rebels. And if people keep protesting asking for more and more and more, then just ignore them and instead check and make sure they can work to get money, make sure they are entertained, make sure they're happy and that they can survive on your Tropico. If they can do all of that, then just let them protest, they usually die down after a while.
And don't choose a small map because then there might not be enough buildings for everyone if you want a big city. Make sure people have a place to live - if people are building ugly shacks, then obviously they've got nowhere to live.
At the beginning, you also want to build a lot of farms and mines and stuff so you can get money to make people happy.