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

Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III
III- A revival of conservatism: authoritarianism, nationalism, and order
As defined by the Juan Linz, a political science scholar of Yale University,
authoritarianism in government denotes “any political system with limited, not responsible
political pluralism, without elaborate and guiding ideology but with distinctive mentalities,
without extensive nor intensive political mobilization, except at some points in their
development, and in which a leader or occasionally a small group exercises power within
formally ill-defined limits but actually quite predictable ones” (1964). If from the two previous
sections, Napoleon III’s authoritarianism is not to be proved; here is a recapitulative listing of
some of its features, as described by Baillet in 2007: the systematic repression of the republican
opponents and their deportation to Algeria, the instauration of a Constitution against the
democratic principles of the 1848’s one it replaced, the uninominal electoral system based on
state-sponsored candidacies, the weakening of the legislative power, the lack of separation of
powers, and the restriction of civil liberties (including the close watch of the education system).
However, and in comparison, labeling Sarkozy’s political philosophy as authoritarian in the
context of a modern democracy like 2010’s France seems hazardous. As a matter of fact, such
an undertaking is surprisingly backed up by several components of the political governance of
this democratically elected head of state, which at this regard “is not very distant from the
Emperor’s” (Baillet, 2007). Sarkozy’s politics being intrinsically based on the “collective fear”
previously mentioned, the threat of and effective use of force is systematized in an attempt by
Sarkozy to bring under his control and authority the very French of whom he is the President.
His Bonapartist-inherited form of authoritarianism appears thus as a nuanced version of the
Emperor’s, but still as a replica of the original model. Since 2007, Baillet analyzed Sarkozy’s
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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