Overview:
This data list compiles basic descriptive information on all coups d’état occurring in countries
reaching a population greater than 500,000 during the period 1946-2012. For purposes of this
compilation, a coup d’état is defined as a forceful seizure of executive authority and office by a
dissident/opposition faction within the country’s ruling or political elites that results in a
substantial change in the executive leadership and the policies of the prior regime (although not
necessarily in the nature of regime authority or mode of governance). Social revolutions,
victories by oppositional forces in civil wars, and popular uprisings, while they may lead to
substantial changes in central authority, are not considered coups d’état. Voluntary transfers of
executive authority or transfers of office due to the death or incapacitance of a ruling executive
are, likewise, not considered coups d’état. The forcible ouster of a regime accomplished by, or
with the crucial support of, invading foreign forces is not here considered a coup d’état