The «liberal empire» and electoral processes in France 1869–1870)

This article covers two important events of the Second Empire epoch: parliamentary elections of 1869 and the plebiscite of 1870. The goal of this article is to reveal how the reforms affected electoral campaigns and whether they boosted the opposition’s popularity and the emperor’s credibility. The research study showed that the elections and the plebiscite had had no restrictions and had been competitive; simultaneously the majority of the French people had voted for liberal reforms fixed as constitutional amendments. Therefore, the emperor’s authority was still firm and the liberal movement was seen from now on as the new ideological platform of the empire.