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Absolutism has existed in various forms in all parts of the world, including in Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler and in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin. A brief treatment of absolutism follows. For full treatment, see European History and Culture: Absolutism.
- Sovereignty
In 16th-century France Jean Bodin (1530–96) used the new...
- Absolutism Summary
Though it has been used throughout history, the form that...
- Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes (born April 5, 1588, Westport, Wiltshire,...
- Sovereignty
- Absolute Monarchies
- Enlightened Absolutism
- Theories of Absolutism
- Differences from Other Theories
- Sources
As prevalent in Western Europe during the Middle Ages, an absolute monarchy is a form of government in which the country is ruled over by an all-powerful single person—usually a king or queen. The absolute monarch had complete control over all aspects of society, including political power, economics, and religion. In saying “I am the state,” Louis ...
Enlightened Absolutism—also called Enlightened Despotism and Benevolent Absolutism—was a form of absolute monarchy in which monarchs were influenced by the Age of Enlightenment. In a bizarre historical contradiction, enlightened monarchs justified their absolute power to rule by adopting Enlightenment-era concerns about individual liberty, educatio...
Absolutism is based on a theory of legislative authority holding that monarchs have exclusive and total legal authority. As a result, the laws of the state are nothing but expressions of their will. The monarchs’ power can only be limited by natural laws, which in practical terms, presents no limitation at all. In ancient Rome, emperors were legall...
While the terms absolute monarchy, autocracy, and totalitarianismall imply absolute political and social authority and have negative connotations they are not the same. The key difference in these forms of government is how their rulers take and hold power. While absolute and enlightened absolute monarchs typically assume their positions through an...
Wilson, Peter. “Absolutism in Central Europe (Historical Connections).”Routledge, August 21, 2000, ISBN-10: 0415150434.Mettam, Roger. “Power and Faction in Louis XIV's France.”Blackwell Pub, March 1, 1988, ISBN-10: 0631156674.Beik, William. “Louis XIV and Absolutism: A Brief Study with Documents.”Bedford/St. Martin's, January 20, 2000, ISBN-10: 031213309X.Schwartzwald, Jack L. “The Rise of the Nation-State in Europe: Absolutism, Enlightenment and Revolution, 1603-1815.”McFarland, October 11, 2017, ASIN: B077DMY8LB.- Robert Longley
Absolutism. Sovereigns and estates; Major forms of absolutism. France; The empire; Prussia; Variations on the absolutist theme. Sweden; Denmark; Spain; Portugal; Britain; Holland; Russia; The Enlightenment. Sources of Enlightenment thought; The role of science and mathematics; The influence of Locke; The proto-Enlightenment; History and social ...
Chapter 8: Absolutism “Absolutism” is a concept of political authority created by historians to describe a shift in the governments of the major monarchies of Europe in the early modern period. In other words, while the monarchs of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries certainly knew they were doing something differently than had their ...
- Christopher Brooks
- 2020
Absolutism or the Age of Absolutism (c. 1610 – c. 1789) is a historiographical term used to describe a form of monarchical power that is unrestrained by all other institutions, such as churches, legislatures, or social elites.
“Absolutism” (or 'moral absolutism') refers, firstly, to a doctrine about the nature of morality (meta-ethics), according to which there are true or justifiable moral principles that have application to everyone, or at least, all moral agents (excluding infants and the mentally impaired for example). In other words, there are moral rules ...
Lecture 2. - Absolutism and the State. Overview. The rise of absolutism in Europe must be understood in the context of insecurity attending the religious wars of the first half of the seventeenth century, and the Thirty Years’ War in particular.
