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

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Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III Girard that France still enjoys a legacy of "l'oeuvre édifée par les Francais du Second Empire". The emperor was the patron of the emergence of full-size banking institutions like the Crédit Lyonnais or the Crédit Mobilier destined at increasing the flux of capital in circulation throughout the territory and its articulation within “an improved credit system backed up by these new finance houses investing in industry” (Miller, 1997). Inspired again by the Anglo- Saxon model of capital circulation which heartened the neighboring British economy, the imperial policy permitted the flourishing of the financial system and the transforming of the French economy into an export-led one. Sarkozy as well heavily insisted upon the primacy of a sound banking system, especially in his pre-campaign book Testimony. Accordingly, when the French banks were two feet from falling into bankruptcy in 2007, Sarkozy implemented an unprecedented (and very controversial) policy under the Fifth Republic: he injected 360 billion Euros within the banking system. As explained by Durand-Parenti, this aid consisted in two main funds: “a state guarantee of the inter-banking loans of 320 billion Euros plus 40 billion Euros dedicated to the re-capitalization of the banks via a public institution whose sole shareholder is the French state” (2008). In an overall situation where hundreds of workers lost their jobs because of the massive firings engendered by the financial crisis or simply the delocalization of big transnational corporations, Sarkozy’s help for the very responsible of such a situation (as repeatedly stated by the Left) was puzzling, especially since the crisis-engendered unemployment did not beneficiate from any presidential magnanimity. “The state will not let any banking institution bankrupt, if such a situation occurs, it will take control over it and the managing team will be changed” answered the President (TFI News Broadcast, September 2008), echoing by this way the imperial saying A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/ 40
Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III referring to the state injection of money in the Crédit Agricole, according to which « the finances of any big state should offer the means to face extraordinary circumstances” (Des Idées Napoléoniennes, 1860). Napoleon III’s incentive and encouragement to the French banking system was to trigger off a domino effect over the economy in its entirety. According to Wolf, the funds of the banking institutions passed from 250 million French francs in 1852-1854, to 500 million in 1855 and 520 million in 1856. The state initial stimulation ended up in a situation where private investors quickly recaptured the torch: between 1848 and 1851, two thirds of these investment funds were supplied by the state, “this figure was no more than 10% between 1852 and 1856: the production of cast iron more than doubled as it did for iron and steel, it tripled for iron ore and increased by 80% for coal” (Wolf). At this point, the two leaders’ focus on the French banking is closely related to another pattern of their economic policy: the promotion and sustainment of national champions. As a matter of fact, if both Sarkozy and Napoleon III were so attached to preserve sound financings it is because they expected from it to favor either the emergence or the preservation of what one might call a patriotic industrialism. On the one hand, worried by the British and German competition, the emperor strived toward the stimulation of the French coal and iron industries. As explained by Bernstein, “by a decree of August 1860, Louis Napoleon authorized government loans to private firms and "great solicitude" was shown for coal and iron establishments because of their fundamental importance to the entire economy: to these signal may be added the completion of the telegraph system, and subsidization of steamship lines” (1960). At this point, the emperor succeeded in accompanying the development of the industrial base of the country. A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/ 41
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