Die Gefühle der Diktatur? Ein Blick auf den atlantischen Raum im frühen 19. Jahrhundert

In the course of the revolutions of the Sattelzeit (R. Koselleck), not only new states emerged, but also new forms of legitimising power. Historian David A. Bell recently put forward this idea in his volume on the significance of charisma around 1800 (Men on Horseback), referring to a contemporary quote: The new states would have to be “governed more by sentiments and affections than by orders and laws”. This in turn raises the question of the feelings that were used for this purpose and how they were publicly staged in order to provide or detract legitimacy. Using Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) and the governor of Buenos Aires Juan Manuel de Rosas (1793–1877) as examples, the role of fear, hope and nostalgia – the latter in its modern meaning – will be analysed. Both rulers took power in times of chaos and discord and ruled in a dictatorial manner. By drawing on the respective everyday iconography and materiality, an approach to the emotional regimes (W.M. Reddy) that were used to consolidate power will be attempted. The question of the primacy of the public over the private (N. Bobbio) as well as the assessment of this new sovereign type of dictatorship (C. Schmitt), as opposed to the ancient Roman dictatorial paradigm, against the background of the history of concepts and the birth of a new conception of linear and progressive history are central issues within this essay.