
Bonapartism () is the political ideology supervening from
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
and his followers and successors. The term was used in the narrow sense to refer to people who hoped to restore the
House of Bonaparte
The House of Bonaparte (originally ''Buonaparte'') is a former imperial and royal European dynasty of French and Italian origin. It was founded in 1804 by Napoleon I, the son of Corsican nobleman Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Buonaparte (née ...
and its style of government. In this sense, a ''Bonapartiste'' was a person who either actively participated in or advocated for imperial
political faction
A political faction is a group of people with a common political purpose, especially a subgroup of a political party that has interests or opinions different from the rest of the political party. Intragroup conflict between factions can lead to ...
s in 19th-century France. Although Bonapartism emerged in 1814 with the first fall of Napoleon, it only developed doctrinal clarity and cohesion by the 1840s.
The term developed a broad definition used to mean political movements that advocate for an authoritarian
centralised state, with a military
strongman and
charismatic leader with relatively
traditionalist ideology.
Beliefs
Marxism
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...
and
Leninism
Leninism (, ) is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the Dictatorship of the proletariat#Vladimir Lenin, dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary Vangu ...
developed a vocabulary of political terms that included Bonapartism, derived from analysis of the career of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Karl Marx
Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
, a student of
Jacobinism
A Jacobin (; ) was a member of the Jacobin Club, a revolutionary political movement that was the most famous political club during the French Revolution (1789–1799). The club got its name from meeting at the Dominican rue Saint-Honoré ...
and the
French Revolution, was a contemporary critic of the
Second Republic and the Second Empire.
Noted
political scientists
The following is a list of notable political scientists. Political science is the scientific study of politics, a social science dealing with systems of governance and power.
A
* Robert Abelson – Yale University psychologist and political ...
and historians greatly differ on the definition and interpretation of Bonapartism.
Sudhir Hazareesingh's book ''The Legend of Napoleon'' explores numerous interpretations of the term.
Bonapartist claimants
List of Bonapartist claimants to the French throne since 1814
Those who ruled are indicated with an asterisk.
Marxism
Based on the career of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, Marxism and Leninism defined Bonapartism as a political expression. Karl Marx was a student of Jacobinism and the French Revolution, as well as a contemporary critic of the Second Republic and Second Empire. He used the term ''Bonapartism'' to refer to a situation in which counter-revolutionary military officers seize power from revolutionaries, and use selective
reformism
Reformism is a political tendency advocating the reform of an existing system or institution – often a political or religious establishment – as opposed to its abolition and replacement via revolution.
Within the socialist movement, ref ...
to co-opt the radicalism of the masses. In the process, Marx argued, Bonapartists preserve and mask the power of a narrower ruling class. He believed that both Napoleon I and Napoleon III had corrupted revolutions in France in this way. Marx offered this definition of and analysis of Bonapartism in ''
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte
''The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon'' () is an essay written by Karl Marx between December 1851 and March 1852, and originally published in 1852 in , a German monthly magazine published in New York City by Marxist Joseph Weydemeyer. La ...
'', written in 1852. In this document, he drew attention to what he calls the phenomenon's repetitive history with one of his most quoted lines, typically condensed aphoristically as: "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce."
See also
*
Caesarism
*
List of political systems in France
*
Poujadisme
References
Bibliography
*
Further reading
* Alexander, Robert S. ''Bonapartism and revolutionary Tradition in France: the Fédérés of 1815'' (Cambridge University Press, 2002)
* Baehr, Peter R., and Melvin Richter, eds. ''Dictatorship in history and theory: Bonapartism, Caesarism, and totalitarianism'' (Cambridge University Press, 2004)
* Dulffer, Jost. "Bonapartism, Fascism and National Socialism." ''Journal of Contemporary History'' (1976): 109–128
In JSTOR*
* Mitchell, Allan. "Bonapartism as a model for Bismarckian politics." ''Journal of Modern History'' (1977): 181–199
In JSTOR* Bluche, Frédéric, ''Le Bonapartisme'', collection Que sais-je ?, Paris, Presses universitaires de France, 1981.
* Choisel, Francis, ''Bonapartisme et gaullisme'', Paris, Albatros, 1987.
External links
Mouvement Bonapartiste
{{Authority control
Authoritarianism
Eponymous political ideologies
Conservatism in France
Militarism
Monarchism in France
Nationalism in France
Populism
Progressive conservatism
Revolution terminology
Right-wing ideologies
Right-wing populism in France
Rival successions
Social theories
Aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars