Bonapartism (French: Bonapartisme[bɔnapaʁtism]) is the political ideology supervening from Napoleon Bonaparte and his followers and successors. The term, originated by Karl Marx, is used in the narrow sense to refer to people who hoped to restore the House of Bonaparte and its style of government. In this sense, a Bonapartiste was a person who either actively participated in or advocated for imperial political factions 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.[1]
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.[2]
Beliefs
Marxism and Leninism developed a vocabulary of political terms that included Bonapartism, derived from analysis of the career of Napoleon Bonaparte. Karl Marx, a student of Jacobinism and the French Revolution, was a contemporary critic of the Second Republic and the Second Empire.[3]
Noted political scientists 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.[4]
Bonapartist claimants
List of Bonapartist claimants to the French throne since 1814
23 January 1914, Brussels Son of Victor, Prince Napoléon and Princess Clémentine of Belgium
Alix de Foresta 16 August 1949 4 children
3 May 1997 Prangins Aged 83
Charles, Prince Napoléon (Napoleon VII) 1997–present (disputed)
19 October 1950, Boulogne-Billancourt Son of Louis, Prince Napoléon and Alix, Princess Napoléon
Princess Béatrice of Bourbon-Two Sicilies 19 December 1978 2 children Jeanne-Françoise Valliccioni 28 September 1996 2 children (1 adopted)
Jean-Christophe, Prince Napoléon (Napoleon VIII) 1997–present (disputed)
11 July 1986, Saint-Raphaël, Var Son of Charles, Prince Napoléon and Princess Béatrice of Bourbon-Two Sicilies
Countess Olympia von und zu Arco-Zinneberg 17 October 2019 1 child
Marxism
In Marxist theory, the term 'Bonapartism' was coined to describe the political trajectory of Napoleon III, the nephew of Napoleon I, who was known as Louis (Napoleon) Bonaparte before his coronation as Emperor.[5] 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 to refer to a situation in which counter-revolutionary military officers seize power from revolutionaries, and use selective reformism 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, 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."[6][7]
See also
Caesarism
List of political systems in France
Poujadisme
References
^Alexander, Robert (2022), Forrest, Alan; Hicks, Peter (eds.), "Bonapartism", The Cambridge History of the Napoleonic Wars: Volume 3: Experience, Culture and Memory, vol. 3, Cambridge University Press, pp. 512–531, doi:10.1017/9781108278119.026, ISBN 978-1-108-41767-9{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
^Marx, Karl (1973). David Fernbach (ed.). Surveys in Exile. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin. p. 146. ISBN 978-0-14-021603-5. Hegel remarks somewhere that all great events and characters of world history occur, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.
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
McLynn, Frank (1998). Napoleon. Pimlico.
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.
Louis-Napoléon, Prince Imperial (Napoléon IV, 1873–1879)
Prince Napoléon-Jérôme Bonaparte (Napoléon V6, 1879–1891)
Victor, Prince Napoléon (Napoléon V6, 1879–1926)
Louis, Prince Napoléon (Napoléon VI, 1926–1997)
Charles, Prince Napoléon (Napoléon VII7, 1997–present)
Jean-Christophe, Prince Napoléon (Napoléon VII7, 1997–present)
1 Actually reigned twice: first from 1814–1815, second from 1815–1824 2 Actually reigned from 1824–1830 3 Reigned in pretense as Louis Philippe II from 1848–1873 4 Briefly restored and then deposed in 1815 5 Actually reigned from 1852–1870 6 Pretense disputed until 1891 7 Pretense currently disputed
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