"Coup" and
"Putsch" A coup d'état (/ˌkuːdeɪˈtɑː/ French:
blow of state; plural: coups d'état),
also known as a coup, a putsch, or an overthrow,
is the sudden and illegal seizure of a government,[1][2][3]
usually instigated by a small group of the existing state
establishment
to depose the established government and replace it with a new ruling
body.
A coup d'état is
considered successful when the usurpers establish their dominance.
A coup d'état typically uses the extant government's power
to assume political control of the country.
In Coup d'État: A
Practical Handbook, military historian Edward Luttwak states that
"[a] coup consists of the infiltration of a small, but
critical, segment of the state apparatus,
which is then used to displace the government from its
control of the remainder."
The armed forces, whether military or paramilitary, can be a
defining factor of a coup d'état.
The political
scientist Samuel P. Huntington identifies three classes of coup d'état:
Breakthrough coup
d'état:
a revolutionary army
overthrows a traditional government and creates a new bureaucratic elite.
Generally led by mid-level or junior officers. Examples are
China in 1911, Bulgaria in 1944, Egypt in 1952, Turkey in 1960, Greece in 1967,
Libya in 1969, Portugal in 1974, and Liberia in 1980.
Guardian coup d'état:
the "musical chairs" coup d'état.
The stated aim of such a coup is usually improving public
order and efficiency, and ending corruption.
There usually is no fundamental change to the power
structure.
Generally, the leaders portray their actions as a temporary
and unfortunate necessity.
An early example is the coup d'état by consul Sulla, in 88
B.C., against supporters of Marius in Rome, after the latter attempted to strip
him of a military command.
An example from the Age of Enlightenment is Swedish king
Gustav III's coup d'état in 1772, when he overthrew the government, instituted
a new constitution with himself as an enlightened despot, all with massive
popular consent. A contemporary instance is the civilian Prime Minister of
Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's overthrow by Chief of Army Staff General
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in 1977, who cited widespread civil disorder and impending
civil war as his justification. In 1999, General Pervez Musharraf overthrew
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on the same grounds. Nations with
guardian coups can frequently shift back and forth between civilian and
military governments. Example countries include Pakistan, Turkey (1971 and
1980), and Thailand. A bloodless coup usually arises from the Guardian coup
d'état.
Veto coup d'état:
occurs when the army vetoes the people's mass participation
and social mobilisation in governing themselves.
In such a case, the army confronts and suppresses
large-scale, broad-based civil opposition, tending to repression and killing,
such as the coup d'état in Chile in 1973 against the elected Socialist President
Salvador Allende by the Chilean military. The same happened in Argentina
throughout the period 1930–1983, Burma during the 8888 Uprising, and was
attempted in Russia in 1991.
A coup d'état is
typed according to the military rank of the lead usurper.
The veto coup d'état
and the guardian coup d'état are affected by the army's commanding
officers.
The breakthrough coup
d'état is effected by junior officers (colonels or lower rank) or
non-commissioned officers (sergeants). When junior officers or enlisted men so
seize power, the coup d'état is a mutiny with grave implications for the
organizational and professional integrity of the military.
In a bloodless coup
d'état, the threat of violence suffices to depose the incumbent. In 1889,
Brazil became a republic via bloodless coup; in 1999, Pervez Musharraf assumed
power in Pakistan via a bloodless coup; and, in 2006, Sonthi Boonyaratglin
assumed power in Thailand as the leader of the Council for Democratic Reform
under Constitutional Monarchy.
The self-coup denotes
an incumbent government
– aided and abetted
by the military
– assuming extra-constitutional powers.
A historical example is President, then Emperor, Louis
Napoléon Bonaparte. Modern examples include Alberto Fujimori, in Peru, who,
although elected, temporarily suspended the legislature and the judiciary in
1992, becoming an authoritarian ruler, and King Gyanendra's assumption of
"emergency powers" in Nepal. Another form of self-coup is when a
government, having been defeated in an election, refuses to step down.
Resistance to coups d'état[edit]
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Many coups d'état, even if initially successful in seizing
the main centres of state power, are actively opposed by certain segments of
society or by the international community. Opposition can take many different
forms, including an attempted counter-coup by sections of the armed forces,
international isolation of the new regime, and military intervention.
Sometimes opposition takes the form of civil resistance, in
which the coup is met with mass demonstrations from the population generally,
and disobedience among civil servants and members of the armed forces. Cases in
which civil resistance played a significant part in defeating armed coups
d'état include: the Kornilov Putsch in Russia in August 1917; the Kapp Putsch
in Berlin in March 1920; and the Generals' Revolt in Algiers in April 1961.[10]
The coup in the Soviet Union on 19–21 August 1991 is another case in which
civil resistance was part of an effective opposition to a coup: Boris Yeltsin,
President of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, stood on top of
a tank in the centre of Moscow and urged people to refuse co-operation with the
coup.
Governments following military coups[edit]
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After the coup d'état, the military faces the matter of what
type of government to establish. In Latin America, it was common for the
post-coup government to be led by a junta, a committee of the chiefs of staff
of the armed forces. A common form of African post-coup government is the
revolutionary assembly, a quasi-legislative body elected by the army. In
Pakistan, the military leader typically assumes the title of chief martial law
administrator.
According to Huntington, most leaders of a coup d'état act
under the concept of right orders: they believe that the best resolution of the
country's problems is merely to issue correct orders. This view of government
underestimates the difficulty of implementing government policy, and the degree
of political resistance to certain correct orders. It presupposes that everyone
who matters in the country shares a single, common interest, and that the only
question is how to pursue that single, common interest.
Current leaders who assumed power via coups d'état[edit]
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Current leaders who assumed power via coups d'état[edit]
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Title
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Name
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Assumed power
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Replaced
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Country
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Coup d'état
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23 July 1970
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3 August 1979
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29 January 1986
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30 June 1989
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2 December 1990
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27 April 19912
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22 July 1994
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August 1997
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25 October 1997
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5 December 2006
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6 August 2008
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22 May 2014
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1Monarch who overthrew his father in a bloodless palace coup.
2As head of Provisional Government of Eritrea.
Eritrea declared independence 24 May 1993.
3Subsequently confirmed in office by an
apparently free and fair election.
4Subsequently confirmed by a narrow margin in
the Mauritanian presidential election,
2009, which was regarded as "satisfactory" by
international observers.
5Acting Prime Minister at that time.
Other uses of the term[edit]
The term has also been used in a corporate context more
specifically as boardroom coup. CEOs that have been sacked by behind-the-scenes
maneuvering include Robert Stempel of General Motors[13][14] and John Akers of
IBM, in 1992 and 1993, respectively.[15][16]
Steve Jobs attempted management coups twice at Apple Inc.;
first in 1985 when he unsuccessfully tried to oust John Sculley and then again
in 1997, which successfully forced Gil Amelio to resign.[17][18]
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