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

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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/ 32
Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III electoral program in terms of domestic policy and concluded that his politics “aims at repressing the current working classes (sans papiers, striking workmen) assimilated to social disorder, at stigmatizing the youth of the suburbs, at increasing the police power, at deporting illegal immigrants, and at the restriction of freedom of circulation throughout the territory”. This revival of burly politics appears thus not to be exclusively reserved to totalitarian or despotic regimes which are equally labeled as authoritarian. This remark echoes by this way with the previous comment made on the oligarchic derive of contemporary democratic systems. From a philosophical standpoint, Alain Badiou ingrained such conception of political governance within the contemporary state of “collective disorientation” of Western societies. Such a diagnosis is for itself a clear denial of all the post-1970 political philosophies, the most known being Bernard Henri Lévy’s “anti-totalitarian moralism” (Bickerton, 2009), and what Badiou coined as “the symptom of a return to radicality based on a pseudo-theorisation of the most opportunistic fears and survival instincts” (2008). Badiou’s verdict at this regard echoes with the “revolts contained in Napoleon III’s contemporaries diaries” asserts Garrigou (2008), in an allusion to Jules Ferry, Charles Baudelaire, or even Karl Marx. This equation - voluntary servitude versus authoritarianism - especially when this latter is based on popular plebiscite, is not then a Sarkozy’s specificity or creation, but again seems to descend from Napoleon III’s epoch. Besides the centrality of authoritarianism, nationalism (with all its declensions like patriotism and conservatism) is a key concept of the Bonapartist thought. The supreme ideal of France’s A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/ 33
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