Dictatorship in History and Theory: Bonapartism, Caesarism, And
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CY332/Baehr&Richter-FM 0 521 825636 October 15, 2003 8:21 Dictatorship in History and Theory bonapartism, caesarism, and totalitarianism This book is unusual in bringing together the work of historians and political theo- rists under one cover to consider the subject of nineteenth- and twentieth-century dictatorships. A distinguished group of authors examine the complex relationship among nineteenth-century democracy, nationalism, and authoritarianism, paying special attention to the careers of Napoleon I and III and of Bismarck. An important contribution of the book is consideration not only of the momentous episodes of coup d’etat,´ revolution, and imperial foundation that the Napoleonic era heralded, but also the contested political language with which these events were described and assessed. Political thinkers were faced with a battery of new terms – “Bonapartism,” “Caesarism,” and “Imperialism” among them – with which to make sense of their era. In addition to documenting the political history of a revolutionary age, the book examines a series of thinkers – Tocqueville, Marx, Max Weber, Antonio Gramsci, Carl Schmitt, and Hannah Arendt – who articulated and helped to reshape our sense of the political. Peter Baehr is Associate Professor of Political Sociology at Lingnan University. His books include Founders, Classics, Canons (2002) and Caesar and the Fading of the Roman World (1998). He is the editor of The Portable Hannah Arendt (2000) and co-editor, with Gordon Wells, of The Protestant Ethic and the “Spirit” of Capitalism and Other Writings (2002) and Max Weber (1995). Melvin Richter is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the City University of New York, Graduate Center, and Hunter College. He is the author of The History of Political and Social Concepts (1995), the editor of The Political Theory of Montesquieu (Cambridge, 1977), and co-editor, with Hartmut Lehmann, of The Meaning of Historical Terms and Concepts (1996). i CY332/Baehr&Richter-FM 0 521 825636 October 15, 2003 8:21 ii CY332/Baehr&Richter-FM 0 521 825636 October 15, 2003 8:21 publications of the german historical institute washington, d.c. Edited by Christof Mauch with the assistance of David Lazar The German Historical Institute is a center for advanced study and research whose purpose is to provide a permanent basis for scholarly cooperation among historians from the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States. The Institute con- ducts, promotes, and supports research into both American and German political, social, economic, and cultural history; into transatlantic migration, especially in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; and into the history of international relations, with special emphasis on the roles played by the United States and Germany. Recent books in the series Norbert Finzsch and Dietmar Schirmer, editors, Identity and Intolerance: Nationalism, Racism, and Xenophobia in Germany and the United States Susan Strasser, Charles McGovern, and Matthias Judt, editors, Getting and Spending: European and American Consumer Societies in the Twentieth Century Carole Fink, Philipp Gassert, and Detlef Junker, editors, 1968: The World Transformed Roger Chickering and Stig Forster,¨ editors, Great War, Total War: Combat and Mobilization on the Western Front Manfred F. Boemeke, Gerald D. Feldman, and Elisabeth Glaser, editors, The Treaty of Versailles: A Reassessment After 75 Years Manfred Berg and Martin H. Geyer, editors, Two Cultures of Rights: The Quest for Inclusion and Participation in Modern America and Germany Manfred F.Boemeke, Roger Chickering, and Stig Forster,¨ editors, Anticipating Total War: The German and American Experiences, 1871–1914 Roger Chickering and Stig Forster,¨ editors, The Shadows of Total War: Europe, East Asia, and the United States, 1919–1939 Elisabeth Glaser and Hermann Wellenreuther, editors, Bridging the Atlantic: The Question of American Exceptionalism in Perspective iii CY332/Baehr&Richter-FM 0 521 825636 October 15, 2003 8:21 iv CY332/Baehr&Richter-FM 0 521 825636 October 15, 2003 8:21 Dictatorship in History and Theory bonapartism, caesarism, and totalitarianism Edited by peter baehr Lingnan University, Hong Kong melvin richter City University of New York german historical institute Washington, D.C. and v Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge , UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521825634 © German Historical Institute 2004 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published in print format - ---- eBook (NetLibrary) - --- eBook (NetLibrary) - ---- hardback - --- hardback - ---- paperback - --- paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of s for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. CY332/Baehr&Richter-FM 0 521 825636 October 15, 2003 8:21 Contents Contributors page ix Preface xi Introduction Peter Baehr and Melvin Richter 1 part i. bonapartism to its contemporaries 1 From Consulate to Empire: Impetus and Resistance Isser Woloch 29 2 The Bonapartes and Germany T. C. W. Blanning 53 3 Prussian Conservatives and the Problem of Bonapartism David E. Barclay 67 4 Tocqueville and French Nineteenth-Century Conceptualizations of the Two Bonapartes and Their Empires Melvin Richter 83 5 Marx’s Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte: Democracy, Dictatorship, and the Politics of Class Struggle Terrell Carver 103 6 Bonapartism as the Progenitor of Democracy: The Paradoxical Case of the French Second Empire Sudhir Hazareesingh 129 part ii. bonapartism, caesarism, totalitarianism: twentieth-century experiences and reflections 7 Max Weber and the Avatars of Caesarism Peter Baehr 155 8 The Concept of Caesarism in Gramsci Benedetto Fontana 175 vii CY332/Baehr&Richter-FM 0 521 825636 October 15, 2003 8:21 viii Contents 9 From Constitutional Technique to Caesarist Ploy: Carl Schmitt on Dictatorship, Liberalism, and Emergency Powers John P. McCormick 197 10 Bonapartist and Gaullist Heroic Leadership: Comparing Crisis Appeals to an Impersonated People Jack Hayward 221 11 The Leader and the Masses: Hannah Arendt on Totalitarianism and Dictatorship Margaret Canovan 241 part iii. ancient resonances 12 Dictatorship in Rome Claude Nicolet 263 13 From the Historical Caesar to the Spectre of Caesarism: The Imperial Administrator as Internal Threat Arthur M. Eckstein 279 Index 299 CY332/Baehr&Richter-FM 0 521 825636 October 15, 2003 8:21 Contributors Peter Baehr, Professor of Political Sociology, Lingnan University, Hong Kong David E. Barclay, Margaret and Roger Scholten Professor of International Studies, Department of History, Kalamazoo College, Michigan T. C. W. Blanning, Professor of Modern European History, Cambridge University Margaret Canovan, Professor of Political Thought, University of Keele, Keele Terrell Carver, Professor of Political Theory, University of Bristol, Bristol Arthur M. Eckstein, Professor of History, University of Maryland, College Park Benedetto Fontana, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Baruch College, CUNY, New York Jack Hayward, Emeritus Professor, Oxford University; Research Professor, Hull University Sudhir Hazareesingh, Tutor in Politics, Balliol College, Oxford John P. McCormick, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago, Chicago Claude Nicolet, Professeur honoraire a` la Sorbonne et al` ’Ecole´ pratique des hautes etudes,´ Paris Melvin Richter, Emeritus Professor of Political Science, City University of New York, Graduate Center, and Hunter College Isser Woloch, Moore Collegiate Professor of History, Columbia University, New York ix CY332/Baehr&Richter-FM 0 521 825636 October 15, 2003 8:21 x CY332/Baehr&Richter-FM 0 521 825636 October 15, 2003 8:21 Preface Between April 9 and April 11, 1999, Hunter College of the City Univer- sity of New York hosted a conference to mark the bicentenary of Napoleon Bonaparte’s coup d’etat.´ Organized by Melvin Richter, with help from Isser Woloch and Peter Baehr, and generously co-sponsored by the German His- torical Institute, Washington, D.C., the event constituted the International Meeting of the Conference for the Study of Political Thought. With the exception of the contributions by Margaret Canovan, Terrell Carver, Sudhir Hazareesingh, and Claude Nicolet, the chapters of this book comprise amended versions of papers delivered at the Hunter College con- ference. The organizers owe a great debt of gratitude to Detlef Junker, then the director of the GHI, and to the staff of the GHI, especially Raimund Lammersdorf, without whom the meeting would never have taken place. Thanks are also due to those who participated in the conference, usually in the roles of chair or commentator, but whose remarks do not appear in this volume: Andrew Arato, Jean Cohen, David Kettler, Jerzy Linderski, J. G. A. Pocock, Martyn Thompson, Charles Tilly, Cheryl Welch, Wolfgang Wippermann, Wulf Wul¨ fing, Bernard Yack, and Zwi Yavetz. This book is dedicated, in memoriam, to the greatly missed Franc¸ois Furet (1927–1997). xi CY332/Baehr&Richter-FM 0 521 825636 October