Self-coup

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A self-coup or autocoup is a form of coup d'état that occurs when a country's leader dissolves or renders powerless the national legislature and assumes extraordinary powers not granted under normal circumstances. Other measures taken may include annulling the nation's constitution and suspending civil courts. In most cases the head of state is granted dictatorial powers.

One of the best modern examples of the self-coup is elected Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori's takeover of the government on April 5, 1992, ostensibly to exercise absolute authority in annihilating Maoist Shining Path insurgents, though political opponents and journalists were arrested by the military. A historical example was the coup d'état of Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, who granted himself emergency powers and later conducted a referendum in which he became Napoleon III.

Germany offers another example, in Adolf Hitler's infamous Enabling Act, 1933, and the process of Gleichschaltung, consolidating the power of the Nazi party (NSDAP).

[edit] List of self-coups

[edit] List of self-coups in fiction

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