Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and ...
Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and ...
Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and ...
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Prologue<br />
<strong>Neo</strong>-<strong>Bonapartism</strong>? A <strong>parallel</strong> <strong>between</strong> <strong>Nicolas</strong> <strong>Sarkozy</strong> <strong>and</strong> Napoleon III<br />
The early years… Or the long <strong>and</strong> uneven path toward supreme power<br />
“Probably the most profound insight of the post-1960s women’s movement has been its<br />
recognition that "the personal is political": this well-known quotation of the Australian-born<br />
British activist Peter Tatchell, initially referring to the post-WWII feminist movements in<br />
Europe, was abundantly quoted at the service of the personal/political equation. In fact, this<br />
very quote served as the contemporary st<strong>and</strong>ard of the Lockean tradition of the theory of<br />
mind which outlined not only the correlation but also the causation <strong>between</strong> the personal<br />
experiences <strong>and</strong> the emergence of a given political consciousness. It is from this very<br />
theoretical lens that both Louis Napoleon Bonaparte’s <strong>and</strong> <strong>Nicolas</strong> <strong>Sarkozy</strong>’s respective<br />
journeys toward the highest position in French politics will be examined via three main<br />
<strong>parallel</strong>isms rooted in their personal backgrounds.<br />
The first battle to be fought for these two politicians started from the cradle, yet for<br />
different reasons. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte endured until his last breathe the accusations of<br />
illegitimacy related to his supposedly non-belonging to the Bonapartes’ bloodline. In fact, his<br />
mother’s - Hortense De Beauharnais (Napoleon’s stepdaughter) – libertarian way of life<br />
reinforced the rumors of romantic <strong>and</strong> extra-marital liaisons; even in official reports <strong>and</strong><br />
correspondence 1 . The lack of physical resemblances <strong>between</strong> the little Louis Charles <strong>and</strong> his<br />
imperial uncle <strong>and</strong> their extreme dissemblance in terms of temperament <strong>and</strong> character (a fact<br />
1 Confer the French ambassador at The Hague’s report dated of April 21 st , 1808, as cited by<br />
Thompson, 1967.<br />
A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/<br />
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