insinuated the oldest dodge in the book of right-wing theorists: the
notion that equality before the law is in some sense real equality. It is
noteworthy that whenever the Code speaks of abolishing privilege, it is
feudal privilege that is meant. Napoleon wished to strike off all the fetters
that chained the high bourgeoisie but he was most emphatically on the
side of privilege. He tried to obfuscate the Revolutionary demand for an
end to privilege by, in effect, pretending that the only forms of privilege
were feudal rights and benefices, not glaring inequalities of wealth.
As has been well said, the 'dust' of individualism easily survived the
Code. Napoleon's treasured legal system totally failed to create a civil
society and indeed there is good reason to think that he never had any
intention of creating such a society, but merely to create a chain of ad hoc
interest groups bound to him personally by expediency. Faced with a
conflict between the interests of the rich and the principle of Ia carriere
ouverte aux talents, he decisively set his face against meritocracy; his basic
position was that he believed in talent provided it was also wealthy. Later,
with the creation of an imperial nobility and the cynical claim that one
cannot govern nations without baubles, further nails were driven into the
coffin of equality.
Some historians have even claimed that Napoleon devised his
eponymous code as a kind of infrastructure for the future conquests he
envisaged. Centralization and uniformity, after all, would be useful tools
for crushing local and national customs. The cardinal purpose of the
Code for Napoleon personally was the replacement of ancien regime
inefficiency with a streamlined centralized bureaucracy whose main
purpose would be raising troops and money. In the rest of Europe the
Code could be used for putting Napoleon's power and that of his vassals
beyond dispute. The purpose of destroying feudal privileges was to place
all property not entailed at the disposition of his vassal rulers. The
hollowness of the Code would be seen later but even in 1 8o2--o4
Napoleon showed how little it meant, in his governance of Italy. There
the estates of deposed princes, emigres and the clergy provided a steady
stream of money, but often the income was in the form of tithes and
feudal benefits, officially outlawed by tht: Code. Where money collided
with the Code, Napoleon ignored his own 'masterpiece' and took the
money.
By 1804 Napoleon's grip on France was complete. His power rested on
a social basis of support from the peasantry and the upper bourgeoisie or
'notables'. Normally a single socio-economic class forms the basis of a
regime's power, but the Napoleonic period was an era of transition, with
the declining class (the aristocracy) too weak to dominate and the
marcin
(Marcin)
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