Concept in Definition ABC

The term absolutism refers to a form of government in which the governor or monarch has all the power in his person, a power that he absolutely centralizes (hence his name).

Although the absolutist form of government, that is, the concentration of power in a single person, took place numerous times throughout history, there is no doubt that the most significant moment for absolutism it was the seventeenth century, at which time the European kings concentrated all political, religious, military and economic. In addition, another of the most important characteristics of absolutism is its idea that the king is the God's representative on Earth, for which there is no one who can equal him, except his heirs eventually. One of the clearest representatives of absolutism was the French monarch Louis XIV, also known as the Sun King, the one who ruled in the Palace of Versailles and to which the image refers selected.

Absolutism supposed in this period a closure to the

participation other institutions policies if they were not led by the king (eg the courts, former examples of parliamentary institutions). At the same time, absolutism supposes a ID of the people with their king, which is achieved through symbols and elements that represent the family real.

The theory politics of absolutism corresponds to the theory of Hobbes, who established that life in society, being complex and conflictive, needed a unique character or figure (the Leviathan), who was to rule in the name of all. This unique government thus arises in the midst of situations of chaos or crisis that oblige members of society to give up their rights and freedoms so that this single figure can carry out government activity. Undoubtedly, this form of political organization would present more and more exaggerations and problems that would end up deriving at the end of the 18th century in the French Revolution, responsible for ending the absolutist monarchy.

Topics in Absolutism