Abstract
In Parts I and II we analyzed the dynamics of Putinism in the first 12 years of its existence. These dynamics point to a Kremlin-sponsored growth of ultra-nationalism, the exaltation of a national “rebirth” and a strong, centralized state, the foundation of an ugly nationalist youth movement, the massive violation of human rights in Chechnya, and military adventurism and territorial annexationist policies abroad. These dynamics seem to fit Griffin’s minimal definition of fascism, as well as my amended version of this minimal definition. However, Putinism still differs in some important aspects from the fascist ideal type. And here the comparison with two other political systems can, eventually, shed more light. It is the comparison with Bonapartism on the one hand, and with Berlusconism on the other. We will analyze the resemblance with Bonapartism in this chapter, and the resemblance with Berlusconism in the next.
Certain persons say: the Empire means war; I say, the Empire means peace.1
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
L-N. Bonaparte (October 12, 1852) “Discours de Bordeaux,” Le Moniteur universel, in Oeuvres de Napoléon III, Tome 3, 1856, pp. 341–344. Available at http://choisel.info/html/histoire/texte_discours_bordeaux.html
R Milza (2004) Napoléon III (Paris: Perrin), p. 259.
S. Schapiro (1949) Liberalism and the Challenge of Fascism—Social Forces in England and France (1815–1870) (New York: McGraw-Hill), p. 320.
F. Guizot (Autumn 2002) “Le coup d’état du 2 décembre 1851—Lettres à sa fille Henriette,” Commentaire, No. 99, p. 670.
On May 31, 1850 the Assembly had adopted a law that introduced as an additional condition for the right to vote the necessity of having lived in the same place for the last three years. “In a time when artisans and daylabourers constituted a floating population that was constantly on the move,” wrote René Rémond, “and when fluctuations in hiring [people] forced a great mass to frequent migrations in search for employment (…) to formulate such a condition means to subtract from the electoral body, maybe, one third and abolish implicitly the principle of universal suffrage” (R. Rémond (1968) La droite en France — de la Première Restauration à la Ve République, Tome I, 1815–1940 (Paris: Aubier), pp. 99–100).
According to Pierre Rosanvallon “the number of excluded voters approaches 60% in Paris. It was essentially the urban working class (…) that finds itself excluded” (P. Rosanvallon (1992) Le sacre du citoyen-Histoire du suffrage universel en France (Paris: Gallimard), p. 402).
Cf. V. Hugo, “Napoléon-le-Petit,” in V. Hugo (2001) Écrits politiques, Anthologie établie et annotée par Franck Laurent (Paris: Livre de poche), p. 183, note 2.
P. Miquel (2008) Le second empire (Paris: Perrin), p. 93.
E. Gibbon (2004) The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume I (Holicong, PA: Wildside Press), p. 410.
A. de Tocqueville (2003) Lettres Choisies, Souvenirs 1814–1859, F. Mélonio and L. Guellec (eds) (Paris: Gallimard) (Letter to Franz Lieber of August 4, 1852), p. 1045.
K. Marx (1969) Der achtzehnte Brumaire des Louis Bonaparte, in Marx Engels Werke (MEW), Bd. 8 (Berlin DDR: Dietz Verlag), p. 115.
Quoted by P. Goble (July 7, 2009) “Window on Eurasia: Putin-Medvedev Regime ‘Proto-Fascist’, Ukrainian Analyst Says,” Window on Eurasia.
Cf. M. Rubel (1960) Karl Marx devant le bonapartisme (Paris and The Hague: Mouton), p. 155.
J-C. Petitfils (1973) La droite en France de 1789 à nos jours (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France), p. 43.
P. Rosanvallon (2008) La légitimité démocratique-Impartialité, réflexivité, proximité (Paris: Éditions du Seuil), p. 305.
Ironically, after his final defeat Napoleon I was himself treated in a racist way. De Chateaubriand wrote, for instance, with the dénigrement of a French nobleman: “One asks oneself with what right a Corsican had just spilled the most beautiful and the most pure blood of France? Did he think that he could replace by his semi-African family the French family that he had just extinguished?” (Quoted in M. Fumaroli, “Le poète et l’empereur,” in F-R. de Chateaubriand (1999) Vie de Napoléon (Paris: Éditions de Fallois), pp. 12–13.)
R. Price (1997) Napoléon HI and the Second Empire (London: Routledge), p. 6.
Cf. E. Traverso, ‘The idea of totalitarianism finds its origins in the context created by the historical break of the Great War which, before Mussolini and Hitler, was already a ‘total war’ (E. Traverso, “Introduction. Le totalitarisme. Jalons pour l’histoire d’un débat,” in E. Traverso (ed.) (2001) Le Totalitarismele XXe siècle en débat (Paris: Éditions du Seuil), p. 9).
A. J. P. Taylor described the fast increasing government intervention during the war as follows: “The First World War was, in some ways, much greedier of munitions than the Second (…). Factories sprang up all over Europe solely to feed it. This demanded little short of an industrial revolution. New industries, and with them a new economic system, had to be created almost overnight. Workers were persuaded to change their jobs and to relax their peacetime standards. Employers worked to government order” (A. J. P. Taylor (1963) The First Word War (London: Penguin), pp. 49–50).
J. Home, “Introduction: Mobilizing for ‘Total War’, 1914–1918,” in J. Home (ed.) (1997) State, Society and Mobilization in Europe during the First World War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), p. 3.
M. Winock (2004) Nationalisme, antisémitisme et fascisme en France (Paris: Éditions du Seuil), p. 201.
F. Neumann, “Angst und Politik,” in F. Neumann (1978) Wirtschaft, Staat, Demokratie Au fsätze 1930–1954, edited by A. Söllner (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp), p. 434.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2013 Marcel H. Van Herpen
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Van Herpen, M.H. (2013). Putinism and Bonapartism: The Ten Resemblances. In: Putinism. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137282811_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137282811_11
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-44873-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-28281-1
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)