(GOVERNMENT) seizure of power by an armed entity, usually the army but sometimes the police.
Usually
coups are perpetrated in countries with very weak governments, such as in West Africa, Bolivia, or
Southwest Asia. They get progressively worse (i.e., more violent, more prolonged, and more repressive) until eventually some
junta builds up protection against against the next coup. This is what happened in Iraq after 1979; it happened in Syria in 1973; it also happened in Japan in 1607. In other cases, the coup accomplishes its goals (Chile 1973) and retires as a
PR move.
After a coup occurs, the military leadership is known as a junta.
Military
coups are usually motivated by the personal ambition of the perpetrator; the central figure is usually very personally corrupt, as well.
Military coups are difficult to pull off and usually are
nipped in the bud. Even with foreign assistance, they are hard, because they are a form of
high-speed civil war.
Inter-class violence often comes with a coup d'etat.