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

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/
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