Definition of Enlightened Despotism

Enlightenment despotism was a particular form politics which occurred briefly in some regions of Europe, especially Russia, Austria and Spain, which involved a combination of the forms monarchical existing at the time with some of the new ideas that began to emerge with the Enlightenment, especially with regard to to administration government and the effectiveness of governments. Enlightened despotism, as its name implies, is a form of government in which the kings or monarchs clearly continue to maintain power in an absolute way or to a great extent concentrated in their people. However, he begins to put aside some issues considered retrograde for the intellectuals of the time such as the belief that God was the one who gave power to the monarchs, among others.

Enlightenment despotism was a very particular phenomenon, framed only in some European countries that by the 18th century were going through a stage of regression or crisis political and administrative as well as an important economic recession that tended to generate many conflicts in the European territories as well as in the Americans (in the case of Spain). Thus, the litter of kings that ruled these regions mentioned during the eighteenth century began to accept some renovating ideas raised by the thinkers of the time in order to improve the administration, the

economy and finances. However, as the word "despotism" explains, this form of government never meant a greater participation policy to the sectors that demanded it; on the contrary, it supposed a greater concentration of power in the figure of the king.

Enlightenment despotism is usually seen as a kind of intermediate between the absolutist monarchy and the revolutionary forms of power that directly wanted to break with the tradition monarchy of Europe. This is so since it supposed an approach to those values ​​and ideas that characterized the time from the administrative and economic point of view. Thus, measures were taken to modernize the economy and focus on the development of the economy. farming, commerce and industry (three activities that in the aforementioned countries ran far behind the economic powers of the time such as England or the Netherlands). In addition, the power of the Church was also limited in places where it had had a role very important not only on a religious level but also on a social and political level: their lands were sold to put them in production, its interference in the public framework was limited and secular scientific and cultural renewal was encouraged.

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