La politique sociale napoléonienne : De la charité chrétienne à une politique sociale d’état : L’organisation du salut public sous le Consulat et l’Empire : 1785 – 1815
Paul-Napoléon Calland-Jackson
Université de Versailles-Saint Quentin en Yvelines, 2015
The revolutionaries of the period spanning 1789 – 1799 abolished the corps intermédiaires between the State and the People. According to the Declaration of the Rights of Man, no organisation or individual must step between the power and the plebeians. Thus, the Le Chapelier laws (among others) abolished the guilds, and successive governments attempted to eradicate the opposing forces of the regions and local « feudalisms ». However, when Napoleon Bonaparte took charge of the ship of State in November 1799, the country was in search of new references. The chief of the new government installed in February 1800 aimed to lay « masses of granite », that is to say stable institutions, on the soil of France. The creation of the Bank of France, of the Prefects, of the Lycées, Baccalaureate and Legion of Honour are well-known examples among many others. But the subject of this thesis is less famous, except perhaps for students and teachers of law. For in the heart of the new Civil Code of the French, there is the « spirit of fraternity » expressed in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, and in the Constitution of the 5th of Fructidor. The Catholic Church no longer being – since the Concordat – the official State religion, but the religion of the majority of Frenchmen, the State replaced the duty of charity with civil fraternity. The First Consul (who was soon to be Emperor) added a clause to the Civil Code stipulating that parents must provide for their children, even as adults, if the latter are unable to do so (and vice versa).Throughout the era of the Consulate and First Empire, this thesis aims to show the development of structures of social solidarity, particularly via legislation, but also in relation to the institutions and policies of the State during this period. We will study (among others) the Civil Code in its context, the Maisons d’Education de la Légion d’Honneur, legislation on labour (particularly in relation to child labour), mutual aid societies (predecessors of the mutual insurance companies and trades unions of our times) and the welfare administrations. We will also cast an eye, in conclusion, over the unfinished projects developed under later regimes. In order to better situate this era in its context in relation to the 21st Century. The period of the Consulate and Empire was a great period for the creation of retirement pension funds, and the Emperor Napoleon even set down the principles which were to regulate this « right » that he wanted to extend to all trades. Our thesis therefore follows in the trail of the creation of these institutions and of the framework of daily life according to Napoleonic principles, a synthesis of the Old Regime and the ideals of 1789.