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Constitutional crisis

A constitutional crisis is a situation in which separate factions within a government disagree about the extent to which each of these factions hold sovereignty; as such, it is distinct from a rebellion, in which factions outside of a government challenge that government's sovereignty.

A constitutional crisis can lead to government paralysis, collapse, or civil war.

Famous Constitutional Crises

• The secession of the southern US states prior to the American Civil War.
• The King-Byng Affair of 1926 where Governor General Byng refused a request by Prime Minister Mackenzie King that Parliament be dissolved and new elections called. Instead, Byng dismissed King and appointed Arthur Meighen as Prime Minister.
• The Watergate scandal of 1973-74 in the United States. Resulted in the first ever resignation of an American president, and the subsequent succession of America's first ever un-elected president.
• The parliamentary dispute of 1975 in Australia that saw Prime Minister Gough Whitlam get fired by the nation's normally apolitical Governor General.
• The consitutional crisis of 1993 in Russia, a conflict between Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the Russian parliament which resulted in a military seige of the parliament building and street fighting which claimed 187 lives.
• The succession crisis of 2002 in Argentina. Following a massive economic meltdown, Argentina's president resigned, followed by a mass of cabinet members, leading five different men to reluctantly assume the presidency for extremely brief periods over the course of three weeks.