01.06.2013 Views

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

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

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

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

<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 />

with tremendous fanfare have had to be delayed or withdrawn; almost invariably, <strong>Sarkozy</strong> has<br />

blamed the minister in question, <strong>and</strong> then moved on to the next subject to strike his interest”<br />

(2009). The efficiency of <strong>Sarkozy</strong>’s approach is especially questioned on the public finances’<br />

debt question. In an overall morose economic climate, where almost all of its European<br />

neighbors tackled this issue with austerity plans, <strong>Sarkozy</strong>’s France "st<strong>and</strong>s out as the only<br />

country that has not spelled out how it will reduce its deficit" notes Laurence Boone, an<br />

economist at Barclays Capital in Paris, cited by The Economist (2010). After more than three<br />

decades of unbalanced budget, this cold-feet attitude toward the “rigueur” reforming could<br />

have been of no consequences if the crisis did not out broke <strong>and</strong> put France in an<br />

unprecedented fragile position. As reported by The Economist, “Moody's, a rating agency,<br />

warned that in the absence of consolidation, rising debt could threaten France's AAA rating;<br />

François Baroin, the budget minister, admitted that the objective of preserving France's rating<br />

was tight" (2009). In fewer words, the perspective of credit agencies stepping back for a top<br />

indebted country like France would plunge its economy into a grave recession if not tackled<br />

very quickly by its crisis management’s president.<br />

Back to the resemblances <strong>between</strong> Napoleon III <strong>and</strong> <strong>Sarkozy</strong>’s economic policy, their<br />

h<strong>and</strong>ling of the banking system is a startling feature common to their approaches. The<br />

emergence of an organized system of trade consequent to the development of the industry<br />

during Napoleon III’s reign ended up in a state h<strong>and</strong>ling <strong>and</strong> support of the banking sector. As<br />

explained by Spitzer in 1962 “a majority of historians grant Louis Napoleon some of the credit<br />

for the unprecedented stimulus to capital formation, credit expansion, <strong>and</strong> a spirit of enterprise<br />

foreign to the crabbed, unimaginative Orleanist economic tradition, <strong>and</strong> essentially believe with<br />

A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/<br />

39

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!