Guest Column
SCHAPIRO, J. SALWYN
GUEST COLUMN By J. Salwyn Schapiro The Heritage Of Bonapartism The revolt of the French Army in Algeria against the Fourth Republic and General de Gaulle's bid to "assume the powers of the...
...Such a crisis confronted the Second Republic because of the great fear roused by the uprising of the Paris workers in the "June Days" of 1848, and because of the widespread discontent with the low position of France among the powers...
...By this time, however, the Republicans had learned their lesson...
...The Republic had fallen into disrepute because of its political corruption and of its pacific attitude toward Germany...
...J. Salwyn Schapiro, professor emeritus of history at CCNY, is author of The World in Crisis and Liberalism and the Challenge of Fascism...
...Never could Frenchmen forget the Napoleonic era when the tricolor waved from Lisbon to Moscow...
...The present "crisis of regime" in France was created by the French army in Algeria when it assumed power...
...Like his uncle, Louis Napoleon stabilized the domestic situation but in a rather novel manner...
...Because of internal strife and foreign wars, no powerful conservative party appeared to stabilize the new order...
...In the Fourth Republic, DeGaulle is the latest exemplar of the persistent tradition of Bonapartism...
...He is an authoritarian in the Bonapartist tradition who would suppress political parties and subordinate the civil power to the military...
...La liberte of the barricade had found its counterpart in la gloire of the barrack...
...The parties that did appear were either revolutionary or reactionary...
...On May 17 the National Assembly voted emergency powers to the Pflimlin ministry by the unprecedented majority of 461 to 114...
...The classic example was the coup d'etat of the 18th of Brumaire (November 9, 1799), which overthrew the First Republic and established Napoleon Bonaparte as First Consul...
...The Fourth Republic, like its predecessor, answered the threat of a coup by a "Republican concentration...
...Such a leader was General Bonaparte...
...GUEST COLUMN By J. Salwyn Schapiro The Heritage Of Bonapartism The revolt of the French Army in Algeria against the Fourth Republic and General de Gaulle's bid to "assume the powers of the Republic" follow the tradition of Bonapartism, which has coexisted in France along with the tradition of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity...
...Again Bonapartism triumphed when the Republic was overthrown by the coup d'etat of December 2, 1851, which established the dictatorial regime of Louis Napoleon, nephew of the great Napoleon...
...To him, as to his predecessors, the voice of the army is the voice of France...
...How explain the existence, within the same nation, of the violent contradiction between democratic idealism and military authoritarianism...
...When he assumed dictatorial power, Bonaparte did stabilize the new order by suppressing the disaffected elements at home and by defeating the enemy armies abroad...
...Aspects of the rule of Napoleon III suggest what is now known as fascism—such as manhood suffrage under what was virtually a one-party system, Government regulation of industry, and forced cooperation of capital and labor...
...When Boulanger was ordered to appear for trial, he fled the country and committed suicide...
...A coup d'etat was plainly in the offing...
...Every French Republic was fated to undergo a "crisis of regime" involving its very existence...
...Despite France's disastrous defeat by Prussia in 1870, Bonapartism continued to have its passionate devotees...
...It all goes back to the French Revolution...
...What is Bonapartism...
...It means the violent overthrow of a republican regime by means of a coup d'etat, a conspiracy organized by the army to establish a military dictatorship headed by a popular general...
...In France, Bonapartism became the military equivalent of political conservatism...
...It was the culmination of the bitter resentment felt by the army because of the defeat of France in the Second World War and in IndoChina, of the humiliating retreat from Suez, and of the long and exasperating struggle in Algeria...
...The Republican parties consolidated into a bloc to defend the regime...
...During the 1880s, the Third Republic faced a "crisis of regime" with the emergence of a new "man on horseback," the popular General Boulanger...
...Henceforth, whenever dissatisfaction with the republican regime rose high, a demand would arise for a "man on horseback...
...In France there were plenty of Jeffer-sons of all stripes but no Hamilton...
...Hence he has made no appeal to class, party or faith...
...Bonapartism was foiled by the method of "Republican concentration," a method that later proved successful against the threat of a coup during the Dreyfus Affair in the early 1900s, and again during the Stavisky Affair in the 1930s...
...When the First Republic was confronted by the revival of Jacobin terrorism and the defeat of the French armies, a demand arose for a leader, "made illustrious by glory," to turn the "lawyers" out...
...A party like the Federalists in America after the American Revolution would have exerted a powerful influence to maintain those ideas, values and institutions essential to continuity and responsibility...
Vol. 41 • May 1958 • No. 21
