Towards a New Empire
A New Government
Louis Napoleon’s first political act as President was to appoint a new government, and his choice of ministers dealt a serious blow to the political reformers. In a government consisting mainly of royalist notables, not a single republican could be found. With the formation of this government we could say that a decicive step from anti-socialism to anti-republicanism had been taken.40
The Constituent Assembly still had a republican majority, but in the elections for a new legislative assembly in May 1849 the new Party of Order, consisting mainly of royalist notables and conservative middle-class elements, won an overwhelming majority. In spite of this, the fact that a relatively large number of republicans and socialists were elected concerned the government. The number of ‘radicals’ was not large enough to block government decisions or new legislation, but it demonstrated that socialist and republican ideology still was alive and kicking.
The Return of Censorship 
Repressive Legislation
Louis Napoleon’s anti-republican and authoritarian nature gradually became apparent. Ministers not completely loyal to him were replaced and new laws restricting the spread of ‘radical’ influence were introduced. In March 1850 a law establishing a system of Catholic schools, better known as the Falloux Law, was passed by the Legislative Assembly. This law gave the Catholic church increased influence, both in the educational system and the state bureaucracy and the idea behind this was naturally to counteract radical influences.
A by-election in March 1850 still returned a large number of radical reformers, and the government concluded that repression was not strong enough. Two new laws were passed in an attempt to destroy the opposition. The first law targeted the republican press to prevent the spread of undesireable ideas and the other law reduced the electorate to make sure the opposition did not have a chance of winning the 1852 elections.
The Second Empire
With the opposition more or less eliminated from the political scene, Louis Napoleon could relatively freely pursue his own ambition of establishing a personal dynasty. Since the Constitution of the Second Republic prevented re-election of a President, a change would have to be made to it. Up to the summer of 1851, the President worked for a revision of the Constitution, but his proposal was rejected by the Assembly in July. The rejection of the planned revision made Louis Napoleon consider other alternatives, and after securing the loyalty of the army a coup d’etat was launched on December 2nd 1851.
Emperor Napoleon III  |
The failure of the government to completely repress the political opposition became apparent in the days following the coup d’etat. Violent risings occured throughout the country, but particularly in the countryside. The cities were not involved in these demonstrations, mainly because Napoleon had stationed a large number of troops there to prevent such rising. The risings were, however, over within a few weeks and in a plebiscite which Napoleon organized to ratify his seizure of power, people voted heavily in favour of him. The could be seen as a vote for order, and an end to any possibility of further revolt.41 The people wanted stability and this left Napoleon relatively free room to continue his reactionary politics. On December 2nd 1852, exactly a year after the coup d’etat, Louis Napoleon established himself as emperor, officially ending the revolution of 1848.
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