Bonapartism

Bonapartism, also Napoleonism, is an authoritarian form of society of the 19th century, which was both contrary to the Ancien Régime and the bourgeois parliamentarism. The Bonapartist campaigned for the system of government of Napoleon I and the throne claims of the Bonaparte family. They contributed significantly to the rise of Napoleon III. during and even after his fall on the army and the civil service had great influence. Only in the 1880s lost Bonapartism important.

Definition

History

The science of history defined Bonapartism as a political system that was characterized by a "special, folk -related and again recurring on the popular will form the monarchical dictatorship in robe " and belonged to the so-called democratic Caesarism, " as he sometimes has been practiced already by the first Napoleon or attributed by the later Napoleon legend him. "

Marxism

The Marxist interpretation patterns of Bonapartism is the most prominent. After Marxist reading is characteristic of Bonapartism that he release of economic forces secured the bourgeoisie against a visibly gaining strength industrial workers, but that was withholding the actual political power remained concentrated in the hands of the Bonapartist statesman.

Without using the term, Karl Marx describes in his essay The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte ( 1852), the phenomenon of Bonapartism. He understands it as a waiver of the bourgeoisie on direct political rule and political representation in favor of authoritarian rule, it promotes and its "social rule " is based. The prerequisite for this is an equilibrium of forces between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, almost a stalemate in the class struggle. The Bonapartist ruler relies on sociological Declassified all classes, such as the lumpen proletariat, or the mass of apolitical small farmers, thereby Achieve a relative independence from the bourgeoisie in the executive branch.

Lenin defined Bonapartism as follows: " to support the warlords power wash between the two rather hostile classes and forces that keep each other more or less in balance. "

Typical is also the triple confirmation of the position of power:

Even after the fall of the Second Empire there was a strong Bonapartist movement in France, the so-called " Hope for the Boulanger - coup ". Even after the First World War still existed a Bonapartist faction in the French Parliament.

During the October Revolution, the concept of Lenin was applied to the Kerensky government, later, many European governments during the interwar period were referred to as the Trotskyite Bonapartist environment.

How far the authoritarian and fascist regimes of the 20th century can be associated with Bonapartism, is controversial among Marxist theorists. August Thalheimer regarded Bonapartism as a precursor of fascism.

Similar to the example of Napoleon is sometimes the person of the Roman dictator Gaius Julius Caesar made ​​, so there are only minor differences between the Caesarism and Bonapartism. Even Caesar had apparently starting APPLICATIONS by the people gradually higher and higher honor after his military victory over his domestic opponents.