Even if the governmental mechanism was almost the same under the Second Empire as under the First Empire, its founding principles were different. The function of the Empire, as Napoleon III was fond of repeating, was to guide the people within to justice and without to perpetual peace. Deriving his powers from universal male suffrage and having frequently, from his prison or in exile, reproached previous oligarchic governments for having neglected social questions, he resolved to deal with them by organizing a system of government based on the principles of "Napoleonic ideas », that is to say those of the Emperor - the elected representative of the people, representative of the people, of democracy - and of himself, the representative of the great Napoleon I, hero of the French Revolution, and therefore guardian of the revolutionary heritage.
Napoleon III quickly showed that social justice did not mean freedom. He acts in such a way that the principles of 1848 which he had preserved become a mere facade. He paralyzed all the national forces that guaranteed the public spirit, such as Parliament, universal male suffrage (which he had nevertheless reestablished in 1852 after its abolition by Parliament), the press, education and associations. The legislative body was not authorized to elect its president, nor to vote on the budget in detail, nor to hold public deliberations. Similarly, universal male suffrage was overseen and controlled by official candidacies, by the prohibition of free speech, and by skilful adjustments of electoral districts so as to drown out the liberal vote among the mass of the rural population. The press was subject to a system of bail, in the form of money, deposited as a guarantee of good conduct, and warnings, that is to say requests by the authorities to stop the publication of certain articles, under threat of suspension or suppression, while books were subject to censorship.
To counter the opposition of individuals, surveillance of suspects was instituted. The attack on the emperor by Felice Orsini in 1858, although motivated solely by Italian politics, served as a pretext for the conservative elements of the Bonapartist to bring about an increase in the severity of this regime with the law of general security, decided by the General Espinasse with the moderate support of the Emperor, who authorized the internment, exile or deportation of any suspect without trial. In the same way, public instruction was strictly supervised, the teaching of philosophy and history was abolished in high school, and the disciplinary powers of the administration were increased.
During the first seven years of the Empire, France had no political life. The empire was carried by a series of plebiscites. Until 1857, the opposition did not exist then, until 1860, it was reduced to five members:Louis Darimon, Émile Ollivier, Jacques Hénon, Jules Favre and Ernest Picard. The royalists waited, inactive after the unsuccessful attempt made at Frohsdorf in 1853, by an alliance of Legitimists and Orleanists, to rebuild a monarchist life on the ruins of two royal families.