French Revolution of 1848

The principal resistance to the French Revolution of 1848 came from former local and parliamentary elites, organized in the legitimist and Orleanist parties, and from police and judicial administrators and prosecutor, many of whom had survived the provisional government's attempt to replace Guizot's prefects with republican commissioners. The brief administrative revolution had run its course by early May when the extreme Left was defeated in a national elections which brought to power moderate republicans who found …

…party of order resisted the drift toward increased presidential autonomy. Yet, its leaders had helped pave the way for a Bonapartist dictatorship by persecuting elements on the Left, which made it difficult to convince the peasant masses of the benefits of a republican regime. Many Orleanists and legitimists who might otherwise have supported parliamentary institutions accepted the coup d'etat of 1851 as a guarantee against the political and social reform with which they associated the republic.