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{{Infobox political party
| name             = Bonapartists
| native_name      = Bonapartistes
| logo             = Imperial Coat of Arms of France (1804-1815).svg
| logo_size        = 150px
| colorcode        = {{party color|Bonapartists (political party)}}
| leader           = [[Lucien Bonaparte]], [[Nobility of the First French Empire#Princes|Prince ''Français'']], [[Prince of Canino and Musignano|Prince of Canino]]<br />[[Prince Napoléon Bonaparte|Prince Napoléon-Jérôme Bonaparte]]
| foundation       = {{start date and age|1815}}
| ideology         = {{ubl|class=nowrap|
| '''Majority:'''
 | {{•}} [[Criticism of monarchy|Anti-monarchism]] (1815)
 | {{•}} [[Bonapartism]] (1852–1870)
 | {{•}} [[Succession to the former French throne (Bonapartist)|Bonapartist Restoration]] (1870–1880)
 | '''Factions:'''
 | {{•}} [[Liberalism]] (1815)
 | {{•}} [[Jacobin (politics)|Jacobinism]] (1815)
 | {{•}} [[Monarchism in France#The Bonapartist claim|Imperial restoration]] (1880–1889)
 | {{•}} [[Conservatism#France|Conservatism]] (1852–1870)
 | {{•}} [[Liberalism]] (1852–1870)
}}
| country          = France
| founder          = [[Napoleon Bonaparte]]
| dissolution      = {{end date and age|1889}}
| colours          = {{color box|{{party color|Bonapartists (political party)}}|border=darkgray}} [[Violet (color)|Violet]]
| position         = {{ubl|class=nowrap|
 | '''Majority:'''
 | {{•}} [[Big tent politics|Big tent]]
 | {{•}} [[Left-wing politics|Left-wing]] to [[Far-left politics|far-left]] (1815)
 | {{•}} [[Centrism|Centre]] (1852–1870)
 | {{•}} [[Centre-right politics#French Revolution to World War II|Centre-right]] (1870–1889)
 | '''Factions:'''
 | {{•}} [[Right-wing politics#France|Right-wing]] (1852–1880)
 | {{•}} [[History of far-right movements in France#Third Republic (1871–1914)|Far-right]] (1880–1889)
}}
}}
The '''Bonapartist Party''' (typically shortened to just the '''Bonapartists''') was the name given to a [[political party]] which participated in the [[May 1815 French legislative election]], but was disbanded following the [[Second Bourbon Restoration]].  Following the [[1851 French coup d'état]] led by soon to be [[Napoleon III]], the party was reformed and participated in four elections until being reduced to a minor party after the fall of Napoleon III in 1870.  The party once again became major contender during the 1876 elections, and remained a major contender until the 1885 election.  Following the 1885 election, the party was merged into the [[Conservative Rally]] alliance in 1889 when it was finally disbanded.

== Origins ==
[[File:Common_Violet.JPG|thumb|During his exile to Elba from 1814 to 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte announced he would return in the spring. The violet became a symbol of this and of Bonapartism.<ref>{{citation|last=Lindsay|first=Suzanne G.|title=Funerary Arts and Tomb Cult: Living with the Dead in France, 1750-1870|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=pONxfBACLPUC&pg=PA172 172] (footnote 16)|year=2012|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-1-4094-2261-7}}</ref>]]
[[File:Eugène_Rouher_Pierson_BNF_Gallica.jpg|thumb|[[Eugène Rouher]] (1814–1884), French politician and President of the Senate during the [[Second French Empire|Second Empire]], was the leader of the ''Bonapartiste'' faction after 1871.]]
Bonapartism developed after Napoleon I was exiled to the island of [[Principality of Elba|Elba]]. The Bonapartists helped him regain power, leading to a period known as the [[Hundred Days]]. Some of his acolytes could not accept his defeat in 1815 at [[Battle of Waterloo|Waterloo]] or the [[Congress of Vienna]], and continued to promote the Bonaparte ideology. After Napoleon I's death in exile on [[Saint Helena]] in 1821, many of these people transferred their allegiance to other members of his family. After the death of Napoleon's son, the Duke of Reichstadt (known to Bonapartists as [[Napoleon II]]), Bonapartist hopes rested on several different members of the family.<ref name="Riff1990">{{Cite book|last=Riff|first=Michael A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jh4NAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA33|title=Dictionary of Modern Political Ideologies|publisher=Manchester University Press|year=1990|isbn=978-0-7190-3289-9|page=33|access-date=18 September 2011}}</ref>

The disturbances of [[Revolutions of 1848|1848]] gave hope to the nascent political undercurrent. Bonapartism, as an ideology of politically neutral French peasants and workers (EJ Hobsbawm),{{Citation needed|date=June 2024|reason=If summarising Hobsbawm's view, needs citation. If a quote or paraphrase, even more so.}} was essential in the election of Napoleon I's nephew Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte as [[President of France|President]] of the [[French Second Republic|Second Republic]], and gave him the political support necessary for his 1852 discarding of the constitution and proclaiming the [[Second French Empire|Second Empire]]. Louis-Napoleon assumed the title [[Napoleon III]] to acknowledge the brief reign of Napoleon II at the end of the Hundred Days in 1815 (see the [[Abdication of Napoleon (1815)|abdication of Napoleon I]] in 1815).

In 1870, the [[French National Assembly]] forced Napoleon III to sign a declaration of war against Prussia; France suffered a disastrous defeat in the [[Franco-Prussian War]]. The emperor surrendered to the Prussians and their German allies to avoid further bloodshed at the [[Battle of Sedan]]. He went into exile after a parliamentary coup created the [[French Third Republic|Third Republic]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Acton|first=Lord|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SNFmAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA495|title=The Cambridge Modern History|publisher=Macmillan Co.|year=1909|isbn=9780521078146|location=New York|page=495ff|author-link=John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton|access-date=18 September 2011}}</ref>

Bonapartists continued to agitate for another member of the family to be placed on the throne. From 1871 forward, they competed with [[Monarchism|monarchist]] groups that favoured the restoration of the family of [[Louis-Philippe I]], [[King of the French]] (1830–1848) (the [[Orléanist]]s), and also with those who favoured the restoration of the [[House of Bourbon]], the traditional French royal family ([[Legitimists]]). The strength of these three factions combined was powerful, but they did not unite on the choice of the new French monarch. Monarchist fervor eventually waned, and the French Republic became more or less a permanent facet of French life. Bonapartism was slowly relegated to being the civic faith of a few romantics as more of a hobby than a practical political philosophy. The death knell for Bonapartism was probably sounded when [[Napoléon, Prince Imperial|Eugène Bonaparte]], the only son of Napoleon III, was [[Anglo-Zulu War|killed in action]] while serving as a [[British Army]] officer in [[Zulu Kingdom|Zululand]] in 1879. Thereafter, Bonapartism ceased to be a significant political force.

The current head of the Bonaparte family is the great-great-great-grandson of Napoleon I's brother Jérôme, [[Jean-Christophe, Prince Napoléon|Jean-Christophe Napoléon]] (born 1986). There are no remaining descendants in the male line from any other of Napoleon's brothers and there is no serious political movement that aims to restore any of these men to the imperial throne of France.

== Ideology ==
Philosophically, Bonapartism was Napoleon's adaptation of the principles of the [[French Revolution]] to suit his imperial form of rule. Desires for public order, national glory, and emulation of the [[Roman Empire]] had combined to create a [[Caesarism|Caesarist]] ''coup d'etat'' for General Bonaparte on [[Coup of 18 Brumaire|18 Brumaire]]. Though he espoused adherence to revolutionary precedents, he "styled his direct and personal rule on the Old Regime monarchs."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Truesdell|first=Matthew|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8f1SwirhmHMC&pg=PA58|title=Spectacular Politics: Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte and the Fête impériale, 1849-1870|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1997|isbn=978-0-19-510689-3|page=58|access-date=18 September 2011}}</ref> For Bonapartists, the most significant lesson of the Revolution was that unity of government and the governed was paramount.

The [[Bee (mythology)|honey bee]] was a prominent political emblem for both the First and Second Empires.<ref>{{Cite web|year=2008|title=History of the Two Empires: The Symbols of Empire|url=http://www.napoleon.org/en/essential_napoleon/symbols/index.asp#abeilles|access-date=17 September 2011|publisher=Fondation Napoléon}}</ref> It represented the Bonapartist ideal of devoted service, self-sacrifice and social loyalty.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Englund|first=Steven|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N-ZJbxGwU4cC&pg=PA240|title=Napoleon: A Political Life|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2005|isbn=978-0-674-01803-7|location=Cambridge|page=240|access-date=18 September 2011}}</ref>

The defining characteristics of political Bonapartism were flexibility and adaptability. [[Napoleon III]] once commented on the diversity of opinions in his cabinet, united under the banner of Bonapartism. Referring to the leading figures in the government of the Second Empire, he remarked: "The [[Eugénie de Montijo|Empress]] is a [[Legitimists|Legitimist]], [[Charles de Morny, Duke of Morny|Morny]] is an [[Orléanist]], [[Prince Napoléon Bonaparte|Prince Napoleon]] is a [[Republicanism|Republican]], and I myself am a [[Socialism|Socialist]]. There is only one Bonapartist, [[Jean Gilbert Victor Fialin, duc de Persigny|Persigny]]&nbsp;–  and he is mad!"<ref>{{Cite book|last=Jerrold|first=Blanchard|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.82552|title=The Life of Napoleon III|publisher=Longmans, Green|year=1882|location=London|page=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.82552/page/n396 378]|access-date=18 September 2011}}</ref>

==Election results==
{| class=wikitable style=text-align:center
!Election
!Votes
!%
!Seats
!+/–
!Leader
|-
!colspan=6|[[Chamber of Representatives (France)|Chamber of Representatives]]
|-
![[May 1815 French legislative election|May 1815]]
|4,230 (2nd)
|12.7
|{{composition bar|80|630|{{party color|Bonapartists (political party)}}}}
|{{center|New}}
|{{center|[[Lucien Bonaparte]], [[Nobility of the First French Empire#Princes|Prince ''Français'']], [[Prince of Canino and Musignano|Prince of Canino]]}}
|-
!colspan=6|[[Chamber of Deputies (France)|Chamber of Deputies]]
|-
![[1852 French legislative election|1852]]
|5,218,602 (1st)
|86.5
|{{composition bar|253|263|{{party color|Bonapartists (political party)}}}}
|{{center|{{increase}} 253}}
|{{center|[[Adolphe Billault]]}}
|-
![[1857 French legislative election|1857]]
|5,471,000 (1st)
|89.1
|{{composition bar|276|283|{{party color|Bonapartists (political party)}}}}
|{{center|{{increase}} 23}}
|rowspan=2|{{center|[[Charles de Morny]]}}
|-
![[1863 French legislative election|1863]]
|5,355,000 (1st)
|74.2
|{{composition bar|251|283|{{party color|Bonapartists (political party)}}}}
|{{center|{{decrease}} 25}}
|-
![[1869 French legislative election|1869]]
|4,455,000 (1st)
|55.0
|{{composition bar|212|283|{{party color|Bonapartists (political party)}}}}
|{{center|{{decrease}} 39}}
|{{center|[[Émile Ollivier]]/[[Adolphe Vuitry]]}}
|-
!colspan=6|[[National Assembly (France)|National Assembly]]
|-
![[1871 French legislative election|1871]]
|Unknown (5th)
|3.1
|{{composition bar|20|630|{{party color|Bonapartists (political party)}}}}
|{{center|{{decrease}} 192}}
|
|-
![[1876 French legislative election|1876]]
|1,056,517 (3rd)
|14.3
|{{composition bar|76|533|{{party color|Bonapartists (political party)}}}}
|{{center|{{increase}} 76}}
|{{center|[[Prince Napoléon Bonaparte|Napoléon-Jérôme Bonaparte]]}}
|-
!colspan=6|[[Chamber of Deputies (France)|Chamber of Deputies]]
|-
![[1877 French legislative election|1877]]
|1,617,464 (2nd)
|20.0
|{{composition bar|104|521|{{party color|Bonapartists (political party)}}}}
|{{center|{{increase}} 28}}
|rowspan=2|{{center|[[Georges-Eugène Haussmann]]}}
|-
![[1881 French legislative election|1881]]
|610,422 (3rd)
|8.7
|{{composition bar|46|545|{{party color|Bonapartists (political party)}}}}
|{{center|{{decrease}} 58}}
|-
![[1885 French legislative election|1885]]
|888,104 (4th)
|11.2
|{{composition bar|65|584|{{party color|Bonapartists (political party)}}}}
|{{center|{{increase}} 19}}
|
|-
![[1889 French legislative election|1889]]
|715,804 (5th)
|9.0
|{{composition bar|52|578|{{party color|Bonapartists (political party)}}}}
|{{center|{{decrease}} 13}}
|
|}

== In the French political spectrum ==
According to historian [[René Rémond]]'s famous 1954 book, ''Les Droites en France'',{{Citation needed|date=June 2024|reason=Needs footnote. Summarises view without reference to text.}} Bonapartism constitutes one of the three French [[right-wing]] families; the latest one after [[Far-right politics|far-right]] [[Legitimists|Legitimism]] and [[Center-right politics|center-right]] [[Orléanist|Orléanism]]. According to him, both [[Georges Ernest Boulanger|Boulangisme]] and [[Gaullism]] are considered to be forms of Bonapartism. However, this has been consistently disputed by Bonapartists and by many other historians. Notable examples of the latter include [[Vincent Cronin]], who referred to Napoleonic government as "[[Centrism|middle-of-the-road]]",<ref>Croin, Vincent (1994 ed.). ''Napoleon''. HarperCollins. ch. 15. p. 229.</ref> [[André Castelot]] in his ''Bonaparte'', for whom being above and outside of party struggles was the founding principle of Bonapartism<ref>Castelot, André (ed. 1967). Perrin. ch. VIII. p. 240.</ref> and [[Louis Madelin]], who describes Napoleon's role in French history as being the great reconciler after the divides and wounds of the [[French Revolution]] (conclusion to ''Histoire du Consulat et de l'Empire'').

In their own time, both Napoleon I and Napoleon III refused to be classed as either leftist or rightist, arguing that to claim to govern a country in the name of a faction meant acting against the national interest and one day succumbing to its influence. In [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k55750243 ''Des Idées Napoléoniennes''] (''On Napoleonic Ideas''), published in 1839, the future Napoleon III quoted his uncle's words to the [[Conseil d'État (France)|Council of State]] on this subject, ending with the following explanation: {{blockquote|text="You see, this is why I have composed my Council of State of constituents who were called Moderates or Feuillants, like Defermon, Roederer, Regnier, Regnault; of royalists like Devaines and Dufresnes ; lastly of jacobins like Brune, Réal and Berlier. I like honest people of all parties". Prompt to reward recent services, as to shed luster all the great memories, Napoleon has placed in the Hôtel des Invalides, next to the statues of Hoche, of Joubert, of Marceau, of Dugommier, of Dampierre, the statue of Condé, the ashes of Turenne, and the heart of Vauban. He revives, in Orleans, the memory of [[Joan of Arc]], in Beauvais that of [[Jeanne Hachette]] [...] Always faithful to principles of conciliation, the Emperor, during the course of his reign, gives a pension to the sister of Robespierre, as he does to the mother of the Duke of Orleans.|source=Chapter III, p. 31}}

Bonapartists have consistently disagreed with this classification, as one of the fundamentals of Bonapartism as an ideology is the refusal to adhere to the left-right divide, which they see as an obstacle to the welfare and unity of the nation. Martin S Alexander, in his book "French History since Napoleon" (London, Arnold, New York, Oxford University Press, 1999)

notes that Bonapartism as an idea would not have made a significant impact if it had been classifiable as either left-wing or right-wing. The historian Jean Sagnes in "The roots of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte's Socialism" notes that the future Emperor of the French edited his political works through far-left publishers.<ref>{{cite book|author=Jean Sagnes|title=Les racines du socialisme de Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte|date=2006|publisher=Privat|location=Toulouse}}</ref> Today, the Bonapartist philosophy would fit into the space occupied by the [[Socialist Party (France)|Parti Socialiste]], the [[Democratic Movement (France)|Mouvement Démocrate]], the [[European Social Liberal Party|Nouveau Centre]] and the left wing of the conservative [[Union pour un Mouvement Populaire]], as these parties occupy the ideological space between parties advocating class struggle and race-based politics, both of which are anathema to Bonapartists, as contrary to the ideal of national unity and religious and ethnic tolerance. This is demonstrated by Napoleonic policy towards industrial disputes, one expression of which&nbsp;– as Frank McLynn writes&nbsp;– is that strikes were forbidden by Napoleon I but in exchange the police sometimes prevented wages from being lowered,{{sfnp|McLynn|1998|page=482}} while another is the [[Napoleon and the Jews|assimilation and protection of the Jews.]]

The Marxist theory of "Left" and "Right" Bonapartism can be considered an illustration of what McLynn refers to as Napoleon I's appeal in equal measure "to both the Right and the Left",{{sfnp|McLynn|1998|page=667}} and what Vincent Cronin describes as "middle of the way", or "moderate" government.<ref>{{cite book|author=Vincent Cronin|title=Napoleon|date=1994|publisher=HarperCollins|page=301|chapter=Chapter 19}}</ref> Napoleon III situated Bonapartism (or the "Napoleonic Idea") between the radicals and conservatives (respectively the Left and the Right) in "Des Idées Napoléoniennes", published in 1839. He expounded on this point to explain that Bonapartism, as practiced by his uncle Napoleon the Great (and represented by himself) was in the middle of "two hostile parties, one of which looks only to the past, and the other only to the future" and combined "the old forms" of the one and the "new principles" of the other.

While some French political parties are shaded by Bonapartism's political stance of national unity, since World War II, no major parties have advocated for Bonapartism in the sense of a return to the rule of a descendant of the Bonaparte dynasty.

== Modern Bonapartism ==
{{portal|conservatism}}
In contemporary times, the term "Bonapartism" has been used in a general sense to describe autocratic, highly centralized regimes dominated by the military.<ref name="Calhoun">{{Cite book|last=Calhoun|first=Craig J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pfISGq3aB2UC&pg=PA47|title=Dictionary of the Social Sciences|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2002|isbn=978-0-19-512371-5|location=Oxford; New York|page=47|author-link=Craig Calhoun|access-date=18 September 2011}}</ref>

In Corsica, where Napoleone di Buonaparte was born, the [[Bonapartist Central Committee]] is a political party founded in 1908 in Ajaccio. It remains active in local and regional politics and is often allied with centre-right republican parties.

== Footnotes ==
<references />

== References ==

* {{cite book|last=Bluche|first=Frédéric|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vNN4Xx2i7RUC|title=Le bonapartisme: aux origines de la droite autoritaire (1800-1850)|publisher=Nouvelles Editions Latines|year=1980|isbn=978-2-7233-0104-6}}
* Alexander, Robert S. ''Bonapartism and revolutionary Tradition in France: the Fédérés of 1815'' (Cambridge University Press, 2002)
* Baehr, Peter R., and Melvin Richter, eds. ''Dictatorship in history and theory: Bonapartism, Caesarism, and totalitarianism'' (Cambridge University Press, 2004)
* Dulffer, Jost. "Bonapartism, Fascism and National Socialism." ''Journal of Contemporary History'' (1976): 109–128. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/260193 In JSTOR]
* {{cite book|last=McLynn|first=Frank|title=Napoleon|date=1998|publisher=Pimlico}}
* Mitchell, Allan. "Bonapartism as a model for Bismarckian politics." ''Journal of Modern History'' (1977): 181–199. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1876335 In JSTOR]
* Bluche, Frédéric, ''Le Bonapartisme'', collection Que sais-je ?, Paris, Presses universitaires de France, 1981.
* Choisel, Francis, ''Bonapartisme et gaullisme'', Paris, Albatros, 1987.
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[[Category:Bonapartism]]
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