Révolution française, Second Empire, Troisième République. À propos d’Émile Ollivier

Émile Ollivier was a French political leader who, as Minister of Justice under Napoleon III, authored a plan for achieving a governmental compromise between Bonapartist autocracy and parliamentary democracy. Ollivier was appointed Commissioner-General of the Bouches-du-Rhône Département at the outbreak of the Revolution of 1848. When Louis-Napoléon became President of the Republic (December 1848), Ollivier was dismissed from his post and from 1849 to 1857 held no public office. Elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1857, Ollivier became one of the republican minority known as «the Five»,” which viewed Napoleon’s regime with hostility. But when the Emperor made liberal concessions in November 1860, Ollivier offered his support to him if Napoleon would establish representative government. Ollivier soon broke with the Republicans and began working with the Duke de Mornay for a «Liberal Empire» that would incorporate elements of parliamentary government. On January 2, 1870, Napoleon appointed Ollivier Minister of Justice at the head of a government chosen from the leaders of a majority in parliament. Ollivier drew up a new constitution that was approved in a plebiscite by nearly 70 percent of the voters, and he set up numerous commissions to prepare the complete reform of such areas as labour, education, and law. He seemed to have transformed the Second Empire from despotism to constitutional monarchy without bloodshed or violence. Ollivier’s work was ruined by the outbreak of the Franco-German War little more than six months after he came to power. The French military reverses soon obliged him to resign, which he did on August 9, 1870, and he never returned to politics. In the remaining 43 years of his life, Ollivier cultivated his wide interests and varied talents. At 65 he wrote L’Empire libéral, partly a history of the Second Empire, partly an apologetic account of his political activity and a defence of Napoleon III’s regime. In his late pamphlets (1889-1894), Ollivier blamed the French Constitutional Laws of 1875 whose parliamentary organization was contrary to the republican principles of popular sovereignty and incompatible to the absolute freedom of executive power.

Émile Ollivier fu un leader politico francese che, come ministro della Giustizia sotto Napoleone III, elaborò in programma per raggiungere un compromesso tra il modello politico dell’autocrazia bonapartista e il regime parlamentare. Eletto all'Assemblea legislativa nel 1857, Ollivier divenne il leader della minoranza repubblicana, conosciuta come «Les Cinq», che si pose all’opposizione del sistema politico bonapartista. Dopo le prime concessioni in direzione liberale fatte da Napoleone III nel novembre del 1860, Ollivier offrì all’Imperatore il suo sostegno a condizione che questi volesse ristabilire il governo rappresentativo in tutta la sua pienezza. Il 2 gennaio 1870, Napoleone III nominò Ollivier Ministro della Giustizia e capo di un governo scelto tra i più importanti esponenti della maggioranza parlamentare. Questi elaborò una nuova costituzione di stampo liberale che fu approvata in un plebiscito da quasi il 70 per cento degli elettori, inaugurando la cosiddetta stagione dell’«Impero liberale». La riforma costituzionale di Ollivier ebbe vita breve e perì insieme al regime bonapartista con la sconfitta della Francia nella guerra contro la Prussia. Nei restanti 43 anni della sua vita, Ollivier coltivò i suoi ampi interessi letterari. A 65 anni scrisse L’Empire libéral, in parte una storia del Secondo Impero, in parte un resoconto apologetico della sua attività politica e una difesa del regime di Napoleone III. Nei suoi ultimi opuscoli (1889-1894), Ollivier criticò con asprezza le Leggi costituzionali del 1875, nelle quali l’organizzazione squisitamente parlamentare del potere, in contrasto con i principi repubblicani della sovranità popolare, frutto della Grande Rivoluzione, costituiva una minaccia per le prerogative del potere esecutivo.