El bonapartismo, o la "dictadura democrática" moderna

Abstract

The unusual repetition in France of two Empires that emerged from the Bonaparte dynasty throughout the 19^th Century (1799-1815 and 1852-1870) gave rise to a particular ideological current and a political culture that, according to many, reaches even our days. Despite its historical specificity, though, and the difficulty of its conceptualization, Bonapartism had a series of characteristics of radical novelty: form par excellence of the modern dictatorship, a transit model between the former absolutist monarchies and contemporary totalitarianisms, Bonapartism presents an odd combination of political-military authoritarianism but legitimized by strong popular and plebiscitary support, which came to disrupt the typology of the classical forms of government.