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 entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

, 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, ...

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 tim ...

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 is concentrated in the hands of one person, whose decisions are subject neither to external legal restraints nor to regularized mechanisms of popular control (except perh ...

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 go ...

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 issu ...

(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 prior ...

( 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 ...

( May 1, 1933) * : Prime Minister Karlis Ulmanis ( May 15–16, 1934) * : Prime Minister

Ioannis Metaxas Ioannis Metaxas (; el, Ιωάννης Μεταξάς; 12th April 187129th January 1941) was a Greek military officer and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Greece from 1936 until his death in 1941. He governed constitutionally for t ...

( August 4, 1936) * : President

Getúlio Vargas Getúlio Dornelles Vargas (; 19 April 1882 – 24 August 1954) was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the 14th and 17th president of Brazil, from 1930 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1954. Due to his long and controversial tenure as Brazi ...

( November 10, 1937) * : King

Michael I of Romania Michael I ( ro, Mihai I ; 25 October 1921 – 5 December 2017) was the last King of Romania, reigning from 20 July 1927 to 8 June 1930 and again from 6 September 1940 until his forced abdication on 30 December 1947. Shortly after Michael's ...

( August 23, 1944) * : President

Mamerto Urriolagoitía Mamerto Urriolagoitia Harriague (; 5 December 1895 – 4 June 1974) was a Bolivian lawyer and politician who was the 43rd president of Bolivia, from 1949 to 1951. A member of the Republican Socialist Unity Party, he had previously been the 26t ...

( May 16, 1951) * : President Ferdinand Marcos ( September 23, 1972) * : President Park Chung-hee ( October 17, 1972) * : President

Juan María Bordaberry Juan María Bordaberry Arocena (; 17 June 1928 – 17 July 2011) was a Uruguayan politician and cattle rancher, who served as constitutional President from 1972 until 1973, and then ruled as the head of a civilian-military dictatorship up t ...

( June 27, 1973) * : Premier

Hua Guofeng Hua Guofeng (; born Su Zhu; 16 February 1921 – 20 August 2008), alternatively spelled as Hua Kuo-feng, was a Chinese politician who served as Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and Premier of the People's Republic of China. The desig ...

( October 6, 1976) * : President

Alberto Fujimori Alberto Kenya Fujimori Inomoto ( or ; born 28 July 1938) is a Peruvian politician, professor and former engineer who was President of Peru from 28 July 1990 until 22 November 2000. Frequently described as a dictator, * * * * * * he remains a ...

( April 5, 1992) * : President

Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...

( September 21, 1993) * : President Nicolás Maduro ( March 29, 2017) * : President

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

( 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 Kais Saied ( ar, قَيس سَعيد; born 22 February 1958) is a Tunisian politician, jurist, and retired law professor, and currently the 8th President of Tunisia since October 2019. He was president of the Tunisian Association of Constitution ...

( July 25, 2021) * : Chairman of the Sovereignty Council

Abdel Fattah al-Burhan Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman al-Burhan ( ar, عبد الفتاح عبد الرحمن البرهان, Abd al-FattāḥʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Burhān; born 11 July 1960) is a Sudanese politician and Sudanese Army general who is the ''de facto'' hea ...

( October 25, 2021)

Notable events described as attempted self-coups

*: President

Jorge Serrano Elías Jorge Antonio Serrano Elías (born 26 April 1945) is a Guatemalan politician who served as President of Guatemala from January 14, 1991 to June 1, 1993. Life and career Serrano was born 26 April 1945 in Guatemala City as the son of Jorge Adán ...

( 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 Abdurrahman Wahid ( ; born Abdurrahman ad-Dakhil; 7 September 1940 – 30 December 2009), though more colloquially known as Gus Dur (), was an Indonesian politician and Islamic religious leader who served as the 4th president of Indonesia, fr ...

( July 1, 2001 – July 25, 2001) *: Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad ( February 23, 2020 – March 1, 2020) *: President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

( November 3, 2020 – January 6, 2021) *: President

Pedro Castillo José Pedro Castillo Terrones (; born 19 October 1969) is a Peruvian politician, former elementary school teacher, and union leader who served as the President of Peru from 28 July 2021 to 7 December 2022. On 7 December 2022, he was impeached a ...

( 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