BONAPARTISM, OR THE MODERN "DEMOCRATIC DICTATORSHIP"

The unusual repetition in France of two Empires that emerged from the Bonaparte dynasty throughout the 19th Century gave rise to a particular ideological current and a new political culture that, according to many, reaches even our days. Despite its historical specificity 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 totalitarianism, Bonapartism presents an odd combination of political-military authoritarianism legitimized, though, by strong popular and plebiscitary support. It came not only to disrupt the typology of classical forms of government, but it also contributed to the process of democratization in the contemporary mass societies.