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Cristiana Senigaglia
In this article Cristiana Senigaglia seeks to elucidate Hegel's conception of the coup d'état. This is necessary because Hegel did not systematically expound his view in this writings, notably it is not treated in his central work, Die Philosophie des Rechts. But a consistent view can be found in his historical and philosophical writings. The article suggests that Hegel did consider there were circumstances in which a use of force to change an existing political order, or lack of it, were justified. He cited the political chaos in early modern Italy, or the constitutional instabilities in France in his own time as examples where the forces of history justified illegal and forceful interventions, be they from above or below, or the intervention of the decisive historical individual, a Caesar or a Bonaparte. To be justified, in Hegel's view, such irregular actions must be consistent with the contemporary underlying forces driving the historical process: they must have the effect of creating a new, acceptable legal order to replace that which is overthrown; and in consequence must result in a new normalization. In order to be justified, and thus to succeed in the long term, the exceptional situation created by the coup must be temporary and limited. Hegel saw Robespierre and Bonaparte as examples where a justified coup was initiated, but then the will of the initiators became an obstacle to a new normalization
