Western Civilization II / Unit 8 WC2 0728 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Classifying a Napoleonic Measure: Revolutionary, Authoritarian, or Both
The idea
The exam describes a Napoleonic measure and asks what it shows about his rule, and the anchor's contrast is the key: man of the Revolution or megalomaniac. Ask of any measure two questions: does it extend seventeen eighty-nine's equality, and does it concentrate power in one man. Most answer yes to both.
In practice
Six cases. The Civil Code's equality before the law: revolutionary. The Code's wife owing obedience: authoritarian, hierarchy restored inside the family. The Concordat: both, toleration kept and the Church restored as a tool of policy. Serfdom abolished in the puppet states: revolutionary in effect, authoritarian in method, imposed by conquest. The lycée with scholarships: revolutionary, careers open to talent, and authoritarian, a school for the state's servants. Press censorship and the coronation: authoritarian. Puppet thrones for his brothers: authoritarian, and the anchor's clearest evidence of megalomania.
Where people slip
The trap is to sort by intent. The anchor's principle is efficiency, which produced both columns from one motive: whatever made the state stronger. Classify by effect on equality and on power, and expect the exam to test the Code on both sides.
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