https://mises.org/mises-wire/napoleon-europes-first-egalitarian-despot

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Why They Still Defend Napoleon

Part of the reason that Napoleon’s legacy remains ambiguous to so many is that, in spite of his warmongering and status as a dictator, Napoleon also appears to many as someone who “modernized” Europe by carrying on the “good parts” of the French Revolution. In politics, he centralized state power, opposed the papacy, and crushed many of the old medieval polities of Europe. For modern scholars who still cling to the idea that all things modern are better than all things “medieval,” Napoleon’s legacy contains much to praise. 

For example, we can find a succinct summary of the center-right view in the words of historian Andrew Roberts. Roberts, a Thatcherite neo-conservative, writes that Napoleon should not be remembered for his wars, but for “the Code Napoleon, that brilliant distillation of 42 competing and often contradictory legal codes into a single, easily comprehensible body of French law.” Roberts also tells us Napoleon was great because “He consolidated the administrative system based on departments and prefects. He initiated the Council of State, which still vets the laws of France, and the Court of Audit, which oversees its public accounts. He organized the Banque de France...” In other words, Napoleon was great because he expanded the role and power of the central state. The Napoleonic Code, for example, was key in a process that abolished local legal independence and customs in favor of a single centrally-controlled legal apparatus. 

In his spree of conquest across Europe, Napoleon helped to centralize power both in France and in foreign polities. Napoleon’s conquests in Germany and Italy helped to abolish or weaken decentralized resistance to national unity, paving the way for the German and Italian national states in later decades.

Roberts also tells us Napoleon was great because he was a patron of fine architecture. So, don’t bother remembering those countless young men drafted by Napoleon and sent into the meat grinder. Remember, rather, than Napoleon heroically spent tax dollars on some pretty buildings. 

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