The Fall of the Ministry (Was Re: In Defense of Scrimgeour & Offense against DD)

[Goddlefrood]

No: HPFGUIDX 179547

> Mike:
> A side note - I didn't believe how easily the MoM falls.  
> It's needed to further the story, but I remember thinking 
> there aren't enough DEs to accomplish everything that LV 
> was able to make happen.

Goddlefrood:

Never lived through a coup yourself, then? Thought not. 
It's amazing how quickly power is usurped by one side 
and relinquished by another when a change of regime 
takes place.

Happily for me (as it's something for the grandkids, 
probably), I've been through two coups in my life. 
During the first one there had been some loose talk 
about the possibility of a take-over for a few days 
prior to the actual event. It seemed well known, 
including to the Government of the time, that the 
coup would happen immediately after a demonstration 
march. The march started and proceeded towards the 
Parliament complex, ostensibly to hand in its list 
of grievances, but when it reached there the leaders 
of the coup (or more likely the paid lackeys of the 
leaders of the coup in that instance) waltzed into 
the debating chamber and announced that they were 
now in power. The actual takeover was effected within 
a matter of minutes. The number of people involved in 
the take-over, that is in terms of those at the Parliament 
was no more than 15, of whom 12 were armed. The coup 
leaders themselves referred to it as a civilian coup.

The second one was announced by the military chief 
quite some time beforehand. It'll be the anniversary 
on Wednesday. This time the military were directly 
involved and the Army Commander was the man doing the 
warning, as well as the one who went and deposed the 
elected Government. It took just a few hours to execute.

So, you see, it's really quite easy to effect a coup, 
as long as those doing so act either with the backing 
of an army, as happened last year, or with a small group 
of determined people. The Ministry of Magic's fall is 
really quite similar to the former of these in that a 
small group of determined people, in the HP world a 
few Death Eaters (with presumably Lord Voldemort making 
overt threats close to hand), took power in a short space 
of time with little internal resistance. It's quite probable 
that, as here, the Ministry really didn't believe it would 
fall. Both the Governments that fell here were of a similar 
opinion and thus ill-prepared for what transpired.

Goddlefrood, not recommending that anyone seeks out a 
potential coup to see empirically what I mean.