• Publisher: *cf.
• 310 pages
• Author: Tomaž Mastnak
• Original title: Bonapartizem: prolegomena za študij fašizma

Bonapartism is a concept that political science increasingly uses to describe political events in the USA and in Eastern Europe. It is used because the more conventional political concepts can no longer explain what is actually happening there. But the concept of Bonapartism itself is in fact poorly understood. Generally speaking, it denotes something negative and unacceptable, but what this unacceptable thing is and why it is like that, is not immediately clear. The book examines Bonapartism closely and problematises the position from which this word is used today. The expression first appeared in the 19th century in connection to Napoleon Bonaparte’s coup d’etat and the policy that followed, and in connection to the coup d’etat carried out half a century later by his nephew Napoleon III. In both cases, Bonapartism ended revolutions without renouncing them, introduced dictatorship that was supported by democratic elements and enjoyed popular support, all the while politically disenfranchising the people and promoting social forces that implemented modernisation development policies and economically expropriated and exploited the majority of the population. His critics belittled him, but Bonaparte modernised Paris, industrialised France, and implemented an order throughout Europe that remained unshaken until World War I.

About the author

Tomaž Mastnak

Tomaž Mastnak (1953) is a sociologist, philosopher, and historian of European political thought. Prior to his retirement, he was a senior researcher at the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and had been a visiting scholar at a number of European and American universities. Until he was recently “cancelled” due to his critical views, he had for decades been a regular newspaper columnist, commenting on Slovenian and international politics from the perspective of political theory. In the 1980s, he was an important player in the democratic movement in Slovenia.