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A coup d'état (pronounced /ku de'ta/), or simply coup, is the sudden overthrow of a government through unconstitutional means by a part of the state establishment — mostly replacing just the high-level figures. It is also an example of political engineering. It may or may not be violent in nature. It is different from a revolution, which is staged by a larger group and radically changes the political system through unconstitutional means. The term is French for "a (sudden) blow (or strike) to a state" (literally, coup, hit, and État, state, always written with a capital É in this meaning). The term coup can also be used in a casual sense to mean a gain in advantage of one nation or entity over another; e.g. an intelligence coup. By analogy, the term is also applied to corporations, etc; e.g. a boardroom coup. Since the unsuccessful coup attempts of Wolfgang Kapp in 1920, and of Adolf Hitler in 1923, the German word "Putsch" (pronounced /pʊtʃ/) (originally coined with the Züriputsch of 1839) is often used also, even in French (such as the putsch of November 8, 1942 and the putsch of April 21, 1961, both in Algiers) and Russian (August Putsch in 1991), while the direct German translation is Staatsstreich.
EtymologyThis is a very interesting example of a political action that does not have an English word to refer to it and because of it, English speaking writers have borrowed either “Coup d’état,” the French expression or the German word, “Putsch.” This kind of political action is not new. Chinese politics was plagued by it well before our own era. Darius became the Persian king by means of a coup d’état. It is famous the complot to overthrow Julius Caesar in which the only possible way to remove him from office was by killing him. What is relatively new is the expression to refer to it. According to the Oxford Dictionary, in 1646 Howell first used coup d’état in France in his book Lewis XIII, Life of Richelieu. In England, Thompson first used it in 1811 by commenting about the coup d’état staged in 1799 by Napoleon Bonaparte to overthrow the Revolutionary Directory composed of members of the civil society and became Consul. According to Prof. Thomas Childers of the University of Pennsylvania the lack of a word to denote a sudden unconstitutional change of government derives from the political institutions from England. Although France’s and Germany’s history are liberally colored by this type of political events, the history of England is not. In England, the last coup d’état was the 1688 Glorious Revolution in which William of Orange, together with a group of parliamentarians, overthrew James II, the last Roman Catholic English ruler and facilitated the establishing of a modern parliamentary democracy. That happened more than three hundred years ago, it seems, that in England, this is an action that occurs very rarely and for which there has not been the need to create a word.
Near cousins of the coupIn recent years, the traditional military coup has declined. The more usual form of military intervention, which some regard as coups d'état, uses the threat of military force to remove a vulnerable or unpopular leader. In contrast to straight coups d'état, the military does not directly assume power, but rather installs civilian leaders it finds more palatable. One advantage of this tactic is the appearance of greater legitimacy. A classic example is the collapse of the French Fourth Republic. This has also occurred twice in the Philippines. In Mauritania a bloodless coup d'état happened on August 3, 2005 when the president was in Saudi Arabia. It is also possible for mass street protests to convince the military to withdraw its support from leaders, sometimes leading the opposition to take power in coup-like fashion. In situations of this sort, such as in Serbia (2000), Argentina (2001), Philippines (1986 & 2001), Bolivia (2003), Georgia (2003), Ukraine (2004–2005), Lebanon, Ecuador and Bolivia (2005), popular uprisings forced the sitting political leader to resign their office, causing someone new to assume the role. This often results in a period of stability and calm, in which an unknown and uncontroversial interim leader can rule the nation until new elections can be held. Types of coupsSamuel P. Huntington has divided coups into three types (ignoring Luttwak's non-military coups)
Coups can also be classified by the level of the military that leads the coup. Veto coups and guardian coups tend to be led by senior officers. Breakthrough coups tend to be led by junior officers or NCOs. In cases where the coup is led by junior officers or enlisted men, the coup is also a mutiny which can have grave implications for the organizational structure of the military. There is also a category known as bloodless coups in which the mere threat of violence is enough to force the current government to step aside. Bloodless coups are so called because they involve no violence and thus no bloodshed. Napoleon's 18 Brumaire coup is often pointed out as an example of bloodless coup, showing that bloodless coups are not always considered to be "bloodless": on 18 Brumaire, several members of parliament were thrown out the windows of the building where they assembled[citation needed]. More recently, Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan came to power in a bloodless coup in 1999, and Sonthi Boonyaratglin came to power in Thailand at the head of the Council for Democratic Reform under Constitutional Monarchy, 2006 The term self-coup is used when the current government assumes extraordinary powers not allowed by the legislation. A historical example is the actions of then President and later French Emperor Louis Napoléon Bonaparte in 1851 against the powerful National Assembly; while a more modern example is Alberto Fujimori in Peru, who was democratically elected, but later took control of the legislative and judicial powers. Some argue that the assumption of "emergency powers" by King Gyanendra of Nepal was a self-coup. Post-military-coup governmentsAfter the coup, the military is faced with the issue of the 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 various armed forces. A common form of African post-coup government is the revolutionary assembly, a quasi-legislative body made of members elected by the army. In Pakistan, the military leader typically assumes the title of chief martial law administrator. According to Huntington, most coup leaders act under the concept of right orders: they believe that the best way to solve the problems their country is facing is to issue correct orders. This view of government underestimates the difficulty in implementing government policy and the amount of possible political resistance to certain orders. It also presupposes that everyone that matters in the country shares a single common interest, and the only question is how to pursue it. Currently-serving leaders who came to power via coups
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