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

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Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III In both cases, it is interesting to highlight the centrality of the industrial sector in their economic approach. As explained by Milza, “Napoleon III was Saint-Simonian, liberal yet interventionist. Like Nicolas Sarkozy, the emperor was convinced by the necessity for France to have a developed industrial sector, inspired by the British model which was then 40 years ahead of the rest of the world” (2008). Again, both leaders followed the same economic strategy, marked by a mixing of interventionist and neo-liberal forms of policy. At this regard, the imperial policy followed two chronological steps: first protectionist, then liberal; while the president adjusted his policy to a contradictory yet simultaneous vision which can be labeled as being selectively mercantilist and neo-liberal depending on the issue to be dealt with. At this regard, Sarkozy’s pre-election program was coherently neo-liberal and moved progressively into a hybrid economic model lacking consistency. As explained by Bickerton, citing Badiou’s analysis of Sarkozy’s economic policy, “resolving crises substitutes for a longer term political program; urgency has its own meaning and logic; in his response to the financial crisis, we have learnt a great deal about Sarkozy’s underlying political pragmatism. Badiou paints Sarkozy as a committed neo-liberal, sold to “big capital” and pushing money-making to the centre of French public life while in recent weeks, Sarkozy’s actions have suggested otherwise: his attempts at coordinating a pan-European response indicated a belief in the necessity of state intervention and leadership” (2009). From the latter, Bickerton assesses Sarkozy’s politics as short-termist and opportunistic, managing the “French exceptionnalism” with a strong yet quintessential crisis management style (2009). The implementation of his campaigny’s political program followed then a changing path varying with the occurrence of new issues of concern. Rieff deplored the fact that “a number of issues, programs announced A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/ 38
Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III with tremendous fanfare have had to be delayed or withdrawn; almost invariably, Sarkozy has blamed the minister in question, and then moved on to the next subject to strike his interest” (2009). The efficiency of Sarkozy’s approach is especially questioned on the public finances’ debt question. In an overall morose economic climate, where almost all of its European neighbors tackled this issue with austerity plans, Sarkozy’s France "stands out as the only country that has not spelled out how it will reduce its deficit" notes Laurence Boone, an economist at Barclays Capital in Paris, cited by The Economist (2010). After more than three decades of unbalanced budget, this cold-feet attitude toward the “rigueur” reforming could have been of no consequences if the crisis did not out broke and put France in an unprecedented fragile position. As reported by The Economist, “Moody's, a rating agency, warned that in the absence of consolidation, rising debt could threaten France's AAA rating; François Baroin, the budget minister, admitted that the objective of preserving France's rating was tight" (2009). In fewer words, the perspective of credit agencies stepping back for a top indebted country like France would plunge its economy into a grave recession if not tackled very quickly by its crisis management’s president. Back to the resemblances between Napoleon III and Sarkozy’s economic policy, their handling of the banking system is a startling feature common to their approaches. The emergence of an organized system of trade consequent to the development of the industry during Napoleon III’s reign ended up in a state handling and support of the banking sector. As explained by Spitzer in 1962 “a majority of historians grant Louis Napoleon some of the credit for the unprecedented stimulus to capital formation, credit expansion, and a spirit of enterprise foreign to the crabbed, unimaginative Orleanist economic tradition, and essentially believe with A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/ 39
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