ABSTRACT
Louis-Napoleon was initially able to rely on fairly broad popular support because he promised to put an end to the futile squabbling of the politicians he ousted. The new Napoleon benefited during the first half of his reign from a favorable economic climate, but he strengthened his position through innovative domestic policies. The institutions he had recreated allowed him to act with considerably decisiveness than the parliamentary governments of the July Monarchy and the Second Republic. The Empire benefited during the 1850s from a surge of economic prosperity. The actual execution of his projects was carried out by Georges Haussmann, a civil engineer and career administrator who had caught the emperor's eye by his success in promoting the plebiscite in favor of the Empire in 1852. In the cultural domain, the Second Empire marked by two significant tendencies. The official culture of the day stressed elegantly crafted entertainment and lavish spectacle, divorced from any consideration of the period's social problems.
