Thank you for your interest in the topic. I'll keep in mind your arguments so that we can address them should we devote a book to Coups and Conspiracies.

What you described was not a coup d'etat by either party. Self-correcting (special election) a board which got off course (abuse of power) was built into the structure.

I would respectfully disagree. Just because there are rules in place and everyone is following them, it doesn't mean that a competing faction can't overthrow an existing regime, be it PTA, HOA, or the government of a country.

For example, my own HOA board got the bit in its teeth and started wielding the strictly-written rules in ways that were perfectly legal that had the entire neighborhood up in arms. Using the rules and regulations, we lawfully demanded a special election and tossed every one of them out in favor of a board that leaves people alone except in the most egregious of violations. Took us about four months start to finish.

Factions can be overthrown within frameworks of rules, installing new regimes with new ideas and ways of doing things. The competing positions about how to spend the PTA money was an arbitrary example.

The same for an HOA. It is a nonprofit and regulated by the state, and there are federal laws in place for some things and IRS regulations for others. If the state finds a huge breach or fraud, the state can assign an overseer. It's required to by law. Again, an HOA has legal documents with declarations and bylaws which spell out what is allowed or not allowed, all members in good standing have to be treated fairly, and the bylaws have to be enforced appropriately. Budgets have to be transparent.

In both cases, the bylaws have spelled out a legal way to deal with members who are not compliant or officers not abiding by the bylaws. It would be really hard to have a coup in those types of organizations.

Thank you, Ellen! The Mafia is a great place to look for factional conflict.

Just a fun fact. An especially interesting period in the US was just after Joe Pistone came out as a covert FBI agent who had infiltrated high levels of the Bonanno crime family. Once he was out, mafiosi started seeing FBI agents around every corner and started whacking lots of their own out of paranoia. Lots of despotic dictators have done the same, such as Stalin.