A self-coup, also called autocoup (from the es, autogolpe), is a form of

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

in which a nation's head, having come to power through legal means, tries to stay in power through illegal means. The leader may dissolve or render powerless the national

legislature A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its p ...

and unlawfully assume extraordinary powers not granted under normal circumstances. Other measures may include annulling the nation's

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

, suspending civil courts, and having the

head of government The head of government is the highest or the second-highest official in the executive branch of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presides over a cabinet, a gro ...

assume

dictator A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power. A dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a small clique. The word originated as the title of a Roman dictator elected by the Roman Senate to rule the republic in times ...

ial powers.An early reference to the term ''autogolpe'' may be found in Kaufman, Edy: ''Uruguay in Transition: From Civilian to Military Rule'', Transaction, New Brunswick, 1979. It includes a definition of ''autogolpe'' and mentions that the word was "popularly" used in reference to events in Uruguay in 1972–1973. Se
''Uruguay in Transition: From Civilian to Military Rule'' – Edy Kaufman
at Google Books. Between 1946 and 2022, an estimated 148 self-coup attempts have taken place, 110 in

autocracies Autocracy is a system of government in which absolute power over a State (polity), state is concentrated in the hands of one person, whose decisions are subject neither to external legal restraints nor to regularized mechanisms of popular cont ...

and 38 in

democracies Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...

Notable events described as self-coups

* : President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte ( December 2, 1851) * : President

Juan Lindolfo Cuestas Juan Lindolfo de los Reyes Cuestas (6 January 1837 – 21 June 1905) was a Uruguayan politician who served as the 18th President of Uruguay from 1897 until 1899 and for a second term from 1899 to 1903. Background Juan Lindolfo Cuestas was a promi ...

(February 10, 1898) * : President

Gabriel Terra José Luis Gabriel Terra Leivas ( Montevideo, 1 August 1873 - Montevideo, 15 September 1942) was a lawyer and politician of batllista origin in Uruguay, and advisor to all Uruguayan governments on diplomatic, Economic and financial issues ...

(March 31, 1933) * : Prime Minister in duties of the State Elder

Konstantin Päts Konstantin Päts (; – 18 January 1956) was an Estonian statesman and the country's president in 1938–1940. Päts was one of the most influential politicians of the independent democratic Republic of Estonia, and during the two decades pri ...

( March 12, 1934) * : Chancellor

Engelbert Dollfuss Engelbert Dollfuß (alternatively: ''Dolfuss'', ; 4 October 1892 – 25 July 1934) was an Austrian clerical fascist politician who served as Chancellor of Austria between 1932 and 1934. Having served as Minister for Forests and Agriculture, he a ...

( May 1, 1933) * : Prime Minister Karlis Ulmanis ( May 15–16, 1934) * : Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas ( August 4, 1936) * : President Getúlio Vargas ( November 10, 1937) * : King Michael I of Romania ( August 23, 1944) * : President Mamerto Urriolagoitía ( May 16, 1951) * : President

Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. ( , , ; September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician, lawyer, dictator, and kleptocrat who was the 10th president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled under martial ...

( September 23, 1972) * : President

Park Chung-hee Park Chung-hee (, ; 14 November 1917 – 26 October 1979) was a South Korean politician and army general who served as the dictator of South Korea from 1961 until his assassination in 1979; ruling as an unelected military strongman from 1961 ...

( October 17, 1972) * : President Juan María Bordaberry ( June 27, 1973) * : Premier Hua Guofeng ( October 6, 1976) * : President Alberto Fujimori ( April 5, 1992) * : President Boris Yeltsin ( September 21, 1993) * : President

Nicolás Maduro Nicolás Maduro Moros (; born 23 November 1962) is a Venezuelan politician and president of Venezuela since 2013, with his presidency under dispute since 2019. Beginning his working life as a bus driver, Maduro rose to become a trade unio ...

( March 29, 2017) * : President Vladimir Putin ( July 4, 2020) * : President

Nayib Bukele Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez (; born 24 July 1981) is a Salvadoran politician and businessman who is the 43rd president of El Salvador, serving since 1 June 2019. He is the first president since José Napoleón Duarte (1984–1989) not to have ...

( May 1, 2021) * : President Kais Saied ( July 25, 2021) * : Chairman of the Sovereignty Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan ( October 25, 2021)

Notable events described as attempted self-coups

*: President Jorge Serrano Elías ( May 25, 1993 – June 5, 1993)Barry S. Levitt (2006), "A Desultory Defense of Democracy: OAS Resolution 1080 and the Inter-American Democratic Charter, ''Latin American Politics and Society'', Volume 48, Issue 3, September 2006, Pages: 93–123. pp104-5 *: President Abdurrahman Wahid ( July 1, 2001 – July 25, 2001) *: Prime Minister

Mahathir Mohamad Mahathir bin Mohamad ( ms, محاضير بن محمد, label= Jawi, script=arab, italic=unset; ; born 10 July 1925) is a Malaysian politician, author, and physician who served as the 4th and 7th Prime Minister of Malaysia. He held the office ...

( February 23, 2020 – March 1, 2020) *: President Donald Trump ( November 3, 2020 – January 6, 2021) *: President Pedro Castillo ( December 7, 2022)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Self-Coup Constitutional crises Coups d'état

Notable events described as self-coups

Notable events described as attempted self-coups

See also

References