A peaceful revolution or bloodless coup is a regime change that occurs without violence. Some peaceful revolutions that have occurred are the bloodless revolution of 1688 in England and the peaceful revolution of 1989 in Germany.

As it relates to democracy

One theory of democracy is that its main purpose is to allow peaceful revolutions. The idea is that majorities voting in elections approximate the result of a coup. In 1962, John F. Kennedy famously said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

This theory is rebutted by Murray Rothbard who points out that to more closely approximate such results, it would be necessary to disenfranchise the elderly, women, and those who are otherwise at a physically disadvantage in combat, and to give trained soldiers multiple votes. He also says that such theory, if carried to its logical conclusion, would require making voting more difficult (e.g. by spacing polling places further apart) and eliminating secret ballots, as those who would be deterred by inconvenience or persecution for revealing their support for a candidate would be unlikely to fight for him. Rothbard offered as an alternative a world in which the only voting that takes place would be by shareholders in corporations and members of voluntary organizations. The former's votes would be weighted according to their ownership.