Term for a coup of the government led by corporations?
Is there a word to describe a coup of the government led by corporations?
Part of the definition of a coup is that it relies on military force of some kind. That is generally out of the direct reach of most companies, at least since the heyday of the East India Companies in the 17th and 18th centuries. Corporate interests being indirectly responsible for coups is so common an occurrence, it is hardly worth its own word.
If you are talking about a peaceful transfer of political power from one person or group to another that is more friendly to some corporate interest, I don't know that we have a word for that exact concept. Coup is sometimes used for such things, but usually semi-ironically. There are words for political parties or countries that primarily serve commercial interests (Corporatocracy, Fascist, etc), but not for the act of such a person or group assuming power.
The best I can think of would be to refer to it as a "corporate takeover"
. This is kind of a pun, as the term is usually reserved for companies taking over other companies. However, its a descriptive one, and most folks familiar with the politics of the situation would know what you are talking about.
Even if the coup is funded and organized by corporations, it is still essentially the same and is usually done using military power (typically mercenaries). As such, the word to use is just coup or coup d'etat.
Example from Wikipedia:
To this end, the mercenary army of the Cuyamel Fruit Company, led by Gen. Christmas, carried out a coup d'état against President Miguel R. Dávila (1907–11).
You could call it a corporatocracy coup