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

Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III
label Alain Badiou prefers to others that have been applied to describe Sarkozy’s rule such as
Bonapartism or Neo-Fascism” (Bickerton, 2009)-, characterized by both the exacerbation of
populist fears and the reliance on an over-reactionary and authoritarian form of political
leadership which supreme aim is to exterminate the May 68’s spirit as explained by Badiou
(2009) who described this phenomenon as a form of “collective disorientation”, is for its part a
guiding theoretical framework for the contemporary understandings of Neo-Bonapartism in the
French political scene. Citing Badiou, Bickerton explains that “an expression of this
disorientation, Pétainism paints servility as moral regeneration, defines national decline as a
moral crisis and identifies foreign blueprints (like the Anglo-Saxon model) as solutions” (2009).
At this regard, the contemporary French philosopher and economist Viveret’s analysis is
interesting to highlight: “France is a scary laboratory, with the rise of an authoritarian Neo-
Bonapartism: increased damages tackling civil liberties, reinforced control of migration flows,
enhanced computer surveillance, toughened recentralization through territorial reforms…
everything is involved” (2009).
Finally, two additional theoretical sub-components should be discussed to fully encircle the
present-day revival of Bonapartism: RealPolitik for all foreign policy related-matters (as initially
coined by the German-Austrian politician Metternich and developed later on by Henri Kissinger)
and finally the post-2000 theories of political communication (based mainly on the revival of
new forms of soft propaganda servicing the leaders’ agenda within the current democratic
systems and the impact of the digital revolution over the political game).
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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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