Rereading the 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte

Abstract

This article examines the character of so-called Bonapartism through the development of the class struggle in the period between 1848 and 1851. The perspective adopted is that in contrast to what is stated in the classics of Marxism, Bonapartism is neither a form of politics imposed from the exterior against all social classes, nor is it a manifestation of the state’s autonomy vis à vis the bourgeoisie. On the contrary, it is a characteristic form of the bourgeois state, which does not have parliamentary institutions among its constituent elements.