Bonapartists

Bonapartists are supporters of the Bonaparte dynasty, notably Napoleon I and his nephew Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, who sought to restore or sustain Napoleonic authority in France after the fall of the First Empire. The movement emerged in the wake of the Revolution and persisted through the Bourbon Restoration (1814–1830), opposing Bourbon and Orleanist claims to the throne. Bonapartism centers on a strong, centralized state and a single head of state with popular legitimacy, often affirmed by plebiscites, while combining reformist economics with an autocratic core.

Bonapartists organized as political factions, networks of exiles and newspapers, and at times more formal party structures within legislatures. They advocated order, national unity, and a capable executive who could mobilize broad segments of society by appealing to national prestige and merit.

A pivotal moment came with Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte’s election as President of the Second Republic in 1848, followed by a coup in 1851 and the establishment of the Second French Empire as Napoleon III in 1852. The movement thus helped shape mid-19th-century French politics by centering leadership in a Napoleonic dynasty and arguing for a presidency empowered by the people, not solely a constitutional monarch.

The term remains a political label for movements or figures invoking the Napoleonic legacy, often in opposition to republican or constitutionalist currents, and is sometimes used nostalgically or to denote support for strong executive authority and centralized power.