The six candidates in the election, in order of most votes received, are Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte of the Bonapartists, Louis Eugène Cavaignac of the moderate Republicans, Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin of the Montagnards, François-Vincent Raspail of the Socialists, Alphonse de Lamartine of the Liberals, and Nicolas Changarnier of the Monarchists.

[1] The new Second Republic was led by a provisional government and then an executive commission, which held democratic elections for a National Constituent Assembly.

The National Constituent Assembly was tasked with drafting a new Constitution for the Second Republic, including the definition of a new head of state to replace the overthrown monarchy.

Karl Marx argues peasants, specifically conservative farmers, desired government protection, meaning a strong autocratic executive.

Alexis de Tocqueville commented that "the collapse of commerce, ubiquitous hostility, and fear of socialism increasingly aroused hatred of the Republic" and that "everyone wanted to get rid of the constitution.

After the June uprising, politics became divided between a frightened conservative majority no longer interested in compromise and a bitter republican minority.

"[6] Workers and socialists saw the National Workshops as the first step to restructuring society and the abolition of capitalism, and thus attached to them a great deal of symbolic importance.

[7] Two monarchist factions, Orleanists and Legitimists, could not agree on a potential candidate and thus both ended up supporting Louis Napoleon.

His proclaimed social aims include meritocracy, cheap credit, less taxation, property for all men, and public works especially communication.

Workers did not as a whole identify Bonaparte as in the pockets of Big Business, and his advocacy for public works meant employment and lowered cost of transportation.

"[3] By the time the Constitution came up for debate in October, opposition to general election for president consisted of monarchists and republicans trying to stop Louis Napoleon.

The Monarchist right (supporters of either the Legitimist or Orléanist royal households) and much of the upper class supported him as the "lesser evil" candidate, as a man who would restore order, end the instability in France which had continued since the overthrow of the monarchy during the February Revolution earlier that year, and prevent a proto-communist revolution (in the vein of Friedrich Engels).

A good proportion of the industrial working class, on the other hand, were won over by Louis-Napoleon's vague indications of progressive economic views.

His overwhelming victory was above all due to the support of the non-politicized rural masses, to whom the name of Bonaparte meant something, as opposed to the other, little-known contenders.