Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and ...

Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III
two alternatives are appealing, either reactionism or revolutionism. From the latter,
Bonapartism has a clear advantage; it proposes a clearly reactionist line of action while
simultaneously containing revolution (lying in the French political spectrum at the extreme Left
side). In addition, its reliance upon winning recipes, such as the restauration of the Glorious
Past myth or the use of the populist mechanism in its legitimacy approach, end up with
federative outcomes.
To put things simply; Bonapartism rides the crisis wave, and demonstrates fully its politics of
national greatness with a crisis management approach. Accordingly, to Grands Plans, Grands
leaders (Grands in the latter being more the expression of an authoritarian derive than the
grandeur d’ame of the leader). The compromising Mitterand or half-hearted and mild Chirac
did not leave a strong print on France. The emergence of a strong political leadership becomes
thus associated with the revival of a strong France, no matter if some liberty sacrifices are
needed to fulfill the revival process. The republican loam being confronted to a de facto dirigist
spasm, the citizenry inks then a contract leaving an early benefit of the doubt to the
authoritarian leader but with a bond commitment.
Here, the fatherly-like approach of Bonapartism, in the fullest sense of the word, is reassuring
and comforting for a society in need of control, because this is the primal expectation, to feel
embarked into a well-oiled and under control governance. It is not thus a coincidence if
Segolene Royal missed her presidential destiny the night of the 2 nd of May 2007’s Great Debate
(watched by a record audience of more than 20 million French) with her “sane anger” in front
of an irreprochable and worth-of leading Sarkozy. Here, the Gaullist legacy shows that it
profoundly marked –and still does- the French prioritization of criteria to be considered while
A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/
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