Constitutional crisis

A constitutional crisis is a 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.

List of constitutional crises

• The secession of the southern U.S. states prior to the American Civil War.
• The King-Byng Affair of 1926 in Canada, where Governor General Viscount Byng of Vimy refused a request by Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King that Parliament be dissolved and new elections called. Instead, Byng dismissed King and appointed Arthur Meighen as Prime Minister.
• The Australian constitutional crisis of 1975 that saw Prime Minister Gough Whitlam fired by the nation's normally apolitical Governor General.
• The constitutional crisis of 1993 in Russia, a conflict between Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the Russian parliament which resulted in a military siege 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.
• The disputed 2000 presidential election in the United States.