Onsager's reaction field for the Potts model from the path integral

A new path integral formulation for theq-state Potts model is proposed. This formulation reproduces known results for the Ising model (q=2) and naturally extends these results for arbitraryq. The mean field results for both the Ising and the Potts models are obtained as a leading saddle point contribution to the corresponding functional integrals, while the systematic computation of corrections to the saddle point contribution produces the Onsager reaction field terms, which forq=2 coincide with results already known for the Ising model.