Absolutism Absolutism is a form of state in some countries Western Europe and the East in the 16th-18th centuries, in which the monarch has unlimited supreme power. In a strictly centralized state, an extensive bureaucratic apparatus, a standing army, police, tax service, and courts were created. Most typical example absolutism - France under the reign of the king Louis XIV, who considered himself the deputy of God on Earth.
Historical Dictionary . 2000 .
Synonyms:See what “Absolutism” is in other dictionaries:
- (absolutism) Originally (1733) the theological concept that salvation is entirely dependent on the will of God. Later this term was extended to political regime, in which the ruler has the legal right to accept any... ... Political science. Dictionary.
In polit. sense is a form of government in which supreme power not limited by the constitution. Absolutism was dominant in European continental states during the 17th and 18th centuries. state form,… … Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron
- (from Latin absolvere to untie, resolve, release). 1) in philosophy: the desire for direct contemplation and perception of the unconditional. 2) in politics: a system of unlimited power. Dictionary foreign words, included in the Russian language... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
This term has other meanings, see Absolutism (meanings). Absolutism (from Latin absolutus unconditional) is a period in the history of Europe when there was an absolute monarchy. Absolute monarchy government system,... ...Wikipedia
- (unlimited, absolute) monarchy, autocracy, autocracy, autocracy, tsarism Dictionary of Russian synonyms. absolutism see autocracy Dictionary of synonyms of the Russian language. Practical guide. M.: Russian language... Synonym dictionary
absolutism- a, m. absolutisme m. 1797. Ray 1998. A form of government in which supreme power belongs entirely to an autocratic monarch, an unlimited monarchy. Ozh. 1986. When I noticed in the people I spoke to a desire political freedom without… … Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language
- (absolute monarchy) a form of feudal state in which the monarch has unlimited supreme power. With absolutism, the state achieves highest degree centralization, a branched bureaucratic apparatus is created,... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
ABSOLUTISM, a form of unlimited monarchy (absolute monarchy), characteristic of the era of late feudalism. Under absolutism, the state reaches the highest degree of centralization, an extensive bureaucratic apparatus, a standing army and... Modern encyclopedia
ABSOLUTISM, absolutism, many. no, husband (from Latin absolutus independent) (polit.). A state system with unlimited personal supreme power, autocracy. Dictionary Ushakova. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary
ABSOLUTISM, ah, husband. A form of government in which supreme power belongs entirely to an autocratic monarch, an unlimited monarchy. | adj. absolutist, oh, oh. Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary
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- , Alexandrov M.S.. Alexandrov Mikhail Stepanovich (1863-1933) - Russian activist revolutionary movement, Marxist historian and publicist. The study is devoted to the problem of the state and criticism of bourgeois theories...
- State, bureaucracy and absolutism in the history of Russia, Aleksandrov M.S.. This book will be produced in accordance with your order using Print-on-Demand technology. Alexandrov Mikhail Stepanovich (1863-1933) - leader of the Russian revolutionary movement, Marxist...
a form of government in which all supreme power (legislative, executive, judicial) belongs to the monarch and is transferred by succession to the throne.
Excellent definition
ABSOLUTISM
fr. absolutisme, from lat. absolutus - unlimited, unconditional) - a concept characterizing the form government and way of organization political power in a country with a monarchical regime. It means the concentration of all power in the hands of one person - the monarch. A. is associated with an extremely high degree of centralization of government. The concept of “absolute monarchy” is also used to characterize this form of government. A. allows, in contrast to despotic, totalitarian regimes, the presence of latent (hidden) restrictions on power: economic (there is a well-known pluralism of property), social (diversity social structure and especially hereditary aristocracy), political (capable of political dynamics, i.e., expanded political reproduction), ideological (does not see the existence of ideological diversity as a mortal threat to itself). The concept of monarchical architecture was developed by R. Filmer (1604–1653) and F. Bacon (1561–1626); A. state - T. Hobbes (1588–1679), J. Bodin (1530–1596). A. should be distinguished from authoritarianism and autocracy. The ideal was the enlightened A.
Absolutism is a form of government in which supreme power belongs entirely to one person, autocracy, unlimited monarchy.
in a number of countries, in a modified form, absolutism as a relic of feudalism survived until the 20th century. From a formal legal point of view, absolutism is characterized by the fact that the head of state (king, czar, emperor) is considered as the only source of legislative and executive power, and the latter is carried out by officials dependent only on him; the head of state sets taxes and spends the collected money uncontrollably. Absolute monarchy - the most complete form of political centralization in feudal states - creates a powerful and extensive bureaucratic apparatus and the most effective (compared to previous forms of state) means of coercion in the form of a standing army, police, court, and fiscal system. An absolute monarchy, like any other form of feudal state, is an organ of subordination and suppression of the working people, primarily the peasantry. Specific feature absolutism is that under absolutism the coercive apparatus (i.e., the state in the proper sense of the word) acquires apparent independence from ruling class nobility, whose organ it is. The conditions creating such an opportunity appear with the development of capitalist elements in the depths of feudal society. industrial relations and the emergence of a bourgeoisie, not yet strong enough to lay claim to seizing power, but economically already powerful enough to oppose its interests to the interests of the ruling class of feudal lords. Exactly at this transition period an absolute monarchy emerges. Despite the fact that absolutism and its executive bodies played on the contradictions between the nobility and the bourgeoisie, relying first on the first and then on the second, it remained a form of dictatorship of the nobility, which in the changed historical conditions the disintegration of feudalism and the sharp intensification of the class struggle were forced to be tolerated in the interests of preserving their own. privileges and its position as the ruling class with the need for independence (within certain limits) of the apparatus state power.
The problem of absolutism attracts great attention historians and government scientists; however, bourgeois historians and lawyers usually focus their main attention on the formal legal features of absolutism (many of them find absolute monarchy wherever there was unlimited monarchical power- V Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome during the period of the empire, etc.). In accordance with bourgeois views on the state, there are widespread ideas about the supra-class nature of the absolute monarchy, statements that the absolute monarchy is essentially a bourgeois state, and not a feudal one (in accordance with bourgeois concepts of feudalism as a period of feudal fragmentation). Absolute monarchy first received scientific theoretical consideration in the works and statements of K. Marx, F. Engels, V. I. Lenin (see literature for the article). In the Soviet historical science the problem of absolutism for a long time was one of the most controversial. In the 1920s, the concept of M. N. Pokrovsky, who considered absolute monarchy a form of domination of commercial capital, was widely spread. Modern Soviet historians unanimously determine class essence absolute monarchy (this is the last form of the feudal state), although in the approach to the problems of absolute monarchy in the works Soviet historians there are discrepancies (see the works of S. D. Skazkin and B. F. Porshnev, indicated in the literature for the article). Until recently, absolute monarchy was studied almost exclusively on European material. However, this form of state arose in certain historical conditions and far beyond the borders of Europe, although the development of absolutism in European countries and in the countries of the East has its own characteristics, as well as its development in a particular country. The features of absolute monarchy in the countries of the East have not yet been sufficiently studied in historical science.
The countries where absolutism took the most complete “classical” forms were: in Europe - France, in Asia - Japan. In France, the appearance of some elements of absolutism dates back to the time of Louis XI (1461-1483), the flowering - to the time of Richelieu and especially Louis XIV (1643-1715). Absolute monarchy came here, as in other European countries, to replace class monarchy; estate representative institutions (French Estates General, Spanish Cortes) in the era of absolutism, as a rule, cease to convene.
The absolute monarchy in the initial period of its existence played a historically progressive role. She put an end to the separatism of the feudal nobility, destroying the remnants political fragmentation, promoted unity large territories, establishing uniform governance in them, contributing to the economic unity of the country and successful development new, capitalist relations. The absolute monarchy subsidized the development of manufactures, introduced a system of protective duties, pursued a policy of mercantilism, trade wars. Therefore, during this period it was supported by the bourgeoisie, which, in addition, needed an apparatus of violence in the era of the so-called primitive accumulation of capital. However, the absolute monarchy acted to the benefit of the bourgeoisie only insofar as it was in the interests of the ruling class of the nobility, which benefited from the successful economic development of the country, which at that stage could only be capitalist, additional income from the development of trade and industry both in the form of taxes (centralized feudal rent), which increased colossally under absolutism, and directly from the revival economic life. The absolute monarchy used economic development also to strengthen military power feudal state and military expansion. These features of absolutism, characteristic (with various modifications) for the majority European countries who went through the stage of absolutism found the most bright expression in France. Features English absolutism (classical period- under Elizabeth Tudor, 1558-1603) were the preservation of parliament, which was used by the royal authorities as a tool to strengthen their power, the weakness of the bureaucratic apparatus in the localities, where the local government, lack of a standing army. The main feature of absolutism in Spain (classical period - under Philip II, 1556-1598) was that it did not support the country's industry and trade (did not pursue a policy of protectionism, encouraging the development of manufactories, etc.), thus not , a progressive role and actually degenerated into despotism. In fragmented Germany, absolutism developed belatedly (in the 2nd half of the 17th and 18th centuries) and only within certain territories (princely absolutism). Distinctive features There was also absolutism in Russia (see below - section Absolutism in Russia). In some countries (Poland) absolutism did not develop at all. In the 18th century characteristic shape absolutism in a number of European countries with a relatively slow development of capitalist relations (Austria, Prussia, Russia, Scandinavian countries) was the so-called enlightened absolutism.
In Asian countries, absolutism developed from state forms different from those in European countries (there was no class monarchy). Due to the slower development of elements of capitalist relations in most Asian countries, the existence of absolutism here dragged on (in a number of countries it existed until the 20th century, in some it has survived, albeit in a modified form, to this day). The greater stability of feudal relations in Asian countries led to the fact that centralization was carried out here less fully, and the emerging local capitalist. elements had less influence on the policies of the absolutist state than in many European countries; at the same time, the policy of feudal absolutist states in a number of Asian countries was significantly influenced by foreign interference, colonial policy of European capitalist powers. For example, in China, where elements of absolutism arose during the Ming dynasty (especially in the 16th century), the Manchu Qing dynasty (1644-1911), which preserved the feudal system for some time, relied not only on Chinese feudal lords, but also on foreign imperialists. Canning feudal system, reliance not only on large Turkish feudal lords, but also on foreign imperialism was also characteristic of the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II (1876-1909) in Ottoman Empire. Certain features of absolutism (encouragement of manufactures, introduction of protective customs duties, state monopolies) were found in Egypt in the 1st half of the 19th century, especially under Muhammad Ali (1805-1849), but they did not develop due to the penetration of foreign capital into Egypt. In Japan, where absolutism was expressed most clearly (established at the beginning of the 17th century during the Tokugawa era), it was characterized by: the placement of the possessions of feudal lords so that between the lands of large feudal lords there were located the possessions of feudal lords, either directly belonging to the ruling Tokugawa house, or completely dependent on him; the hostage system - the obligation of feudal lords to keep their families in the capital, and to live alternately for a year in their principality, a year in the capital; creating one’s own economic power by concentrating almost a quarter of the country’s entire land fund in the hands of the ruling house; confiscation of all major trade and craft cities and trade routes from the jurisdiction of the feudal lords and their subordination to the central government; isolation of the country from the outside world.
With the development of the bourgeoisie, the absolute monarchy gradually lost its progressive character and became an institution that delayed further development capitalism and society as a whole. In developed capitalist countries where early bourgeois revolutions took place, absolutism was destroyed during these revolutions (in England - during the bourgeois revolution of the 17th century, in France - the bourgeois revolution of the late 18th century). In slower countries capitalist development The bourgeoisie, in the face of a growing proletariat, made a deal with the feudal-absolutist monarchy (in the revolutions of 1848-1849 in Germany and Austria, in the revolution of 1905-1907 in Russia, etc.) - here there was a gradual evolution of the feudal-absolutist monarchy into the monarchy of the bourgeois- landowner; The so-called Meiji Revolution (1867-1868) in Japan, which ended Tokugawa absolutism, but did not eliminate the monarchy and the dominance of feudal elements in the state apparatus, was also incomplete. In Russia, the absolute monarchy was abolished by the February bourgeois-democratic revolution of 1917; The semi-absolutist monarchy in Germany lasted until the bourgeois-democratic November Revolution of 1918. In China, where the struggle against the feudal-absolutist regime of the Qing dynasty was closely intertwined with the struggle for liberation from foreign oppression, the absolute monarchy was destroyed as a result of the Xinhai Revolution of 1911. In Turkey, absolutism was eliminated in 1922 as a result of the national liberation struggle Turkish people(the so-called Kemalist revolution).
Absolutism
ABSOLUTISM
(absolutism) Originally (1733) theological concept that salvation was entirely dependent on the will of God. Subsequently, this term extended to a political regime in which the ruler has the legal right to make any decision at his own discretion. As a rule, monarchies are called absolute initial period new history, first of all the regime French king Louis XIV. IN political significance the term actually began to be used only with late XVIII c., when many regimes of this type were already on the verge of dying out. Unlike tyrannies, absolutist regimes existed on a legitimate basis. Louis XVI in November 1788, on the eve of the French Revolution, told his cousin, the Duke of Orleans (father of the future King of France Louis Philippe, 1830–48), that any decision he made expressed the will of the law. Some modern historians argue that absolutism never meant unlimited power, since it existed within the framework of traditions and customary laws that limited the actions of the monarch.
Policy. Dictionary. - M.: "INFRA-M", Publishing House "Ves Mir". D. Underhill, S. Barrett, P. Burnell, P. Burnham, et al. General edition: Doctor of Economics Osadchaya I.M.. 2001 .
Absolutism
a concept that characterizes the form of government and the way of organizing political power in a country with a monarchical regime. Absolutism means the concentration of all power in the hands of one person - the monarch. Absolutism is associated with an extremely high degree of centralization of government. To characterize this form of government, the concept of “absolute monarchy” is also used. Absolutism, in contrast to despotic, totalitarian regimes, allows for the presence of latent (hidden) restrictions on power: economic (there is a well-known pluralism of property), social (the presence of a diverse social structure and especially a hereditary aristocracy), political (absolutism is capable of political dynamics, i.e. expanded political reproduction), ideological (absolutism does not see the existence of ideological diversity as a mortal threat to itself). The concept of monarchical absolutism was developed by R. Filmer, F. Bacon; the idea of state absolutism - T. Hobbes, J. Bodin. The concept of absolutism should be distinguished from the concepts of authoritarianism and autocracy. The ideal was “enlightened absolutism”.
Domanov V.G.
Political science. Dictionary. - M: RSU. V.N. Konovalov. 2010.
Absolutism
(from lat. absolutus - independent, unlimited)
absolute monarchy. a form of feudal state in which the monarch has unlimited supreme power. Under absolutism, the state reaches the highest degree of state centralization, an extensive bureaucratic apparatus, a standing army and police are created; the activities of class representation bodies, as a rule, cease. The heyday of absolutism in Western European countries occurred in the 17th and 18th centuries. In Russia, absolutism existed in the 18th and early 20th centuries. (see Autocracy). From a formal legal point of view, under absolutism, the fullness of legislative and executive power is concentrated in the hands of the head of state - the monarch; he independently sets taxes and manages public finances. The social support of absolutism is the nobility. The justification for absolutism was the thesis of the divine origin of supreme power. Magnificent and sophisticated palace etiquette served to exalt the person of the sovereign. At the first stage, absolutism was progressive in nature: it fought against the separatism of the feudal nobility, subordinated the church to the state, eliminated the remnants of feudal fragmentation, and introduced uniform laws. The absolute monarchy is characterized by a policy of protectionism and mercantilism, which contributed to the development national economy, commercial and industrial bourgeoisie. New economic resources were used by absolutism to strengthen the military power of the state and wage wars of conquest.
Political Science: Dictionary-Reference Book. comp. Prof. Science Sanzharevsky I.I.. 2010 .
Political science. Dictionary. - RSU. V.N. Konovalov. 2010.
Synonyms:See what “Absolutism” is in other dictionaries:
In polit. sense, there is a form of government in which the supreme power is not limited by the constitution. Absolutism was the dominant state form in European continental states during the 17th and 18th centuries... ... Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron
- (from Latin absolvere to untie, resolve, release). 1) in philosophy: the desire for direct contemplation and perception of the unconditional. 2) in politics: a system of unlimited power. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
This term has other meanings, see Absolutism (meanings). Absolutism (from Latin absolutus unconditional) is a period in the history of Europe when there was an absolute monarchy. Absolute monarchy government structure,... ... Wikipedia
- (unlimited, absolute) monarchy, autocracy, autocracy, autocracy, tsarism Dictionary of Russian synonyms. absolutism see autocracy Dictionary of synonyms of the Russian language. Practical guide. M.: Russian language... Synonym dictionary
absolutism- a, m. absolutisme m. 1797. Ray 1998. A form of government in which supreme power belongs entirely to an autocratic monarch, an unlimited monarchy. Ozh. 1986. When I noticed in the people with whom I spoke a desire for political freedom without... ... Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language
- (absolute monarchy) a form of feudal state in which the monarch has unlimited supreme power. Under absolutism, the state reaches the highest degree of centralization, an extensive bureaucratic apparatus is created,... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
ABSOLUTISM, a form of unlimited monarchy (absolute monarchy), characteristic of the era of late feudalism. Under absolutism, the state reaches the highest degree of centralization, an extensive bureaucratic apparatus, a standing army and... Modern encyclopedia
A form of state in some countries of Western Europe and the East in the 16th and 18th centuries, in which the monarch has unlimited supreme power. In a strictly centralized state, an extensive bureaucratic apparatus, a standing army,... ... were created. Historical Dictionary
ABSOLUTISM, absolutism, many. no, husband (from Latin absolutus independent) (polit.). A state system with unlimited personal supreme power, autocracy. Ushakov's explanatory dictionary. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary
ABSOLUTISM, ah, husband. A form of government in which supreme power belongs entirely to an autocratic monarch, an unlimited monarchy. | adj. absolutist, oh, oh. Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary
Books
- State, bureaucracy and absolutism in the history of Russia, Alexandrov M.S.. Alexandrov Mikhail Stepanovich (1863-1933) - leader of the Russian revolutionary movement, Marxist historian and publicist. The study is devoted to the problem of the state and criticism of bourgeois theories...
ABSOLUTISM (from the Latin absolutus - unconditional, unlimited), political system in the countries of Western Europe at the late stage of the pre-industrial era, characterized by the rejection of class-representative institutions and maximum concentration power in the hands of the monarch. Along with the concept of absolutism in literature, there is a primary concept in relation to it, “absolute monarchy,” used in a broad sense (unlimited power of the sovereign), as well as in a narrow, strictly scientific sense, coinciding with the concept of absolutism.
Absolutism as historical concept . The term “absolutism” has become widespread since the mid-19th century, but the fact that this system was a holistic phenomenon that included not only institutions of power, but to a large extent social relations, was realized already on the eve of the Great french revolution. Then the essence of this phenomenon was expressed by the concept of the “old order” (Ancien regime).
In the 18th century, the terms “despotism” and “feudal order” - rough synonyms for the “old order” - also became widespread. The concept of absolutism was developed to designate a system that was becoming a thing of the past and to fight against it, which lasted throughout the entire 19th century. It contained the idea of historical development - from oppression and ignorance to freedom and enlightenment, from autocracy to a constitutional system. Thanks to A. de Tocqueville (“ Old order and revolution”, 1856), absolutism also began to be viewed in a sociological context, not only as the centralization of power, but also as a way of leveling class (social) differences.
Genesis and formation of political theories of absolutism. The concept of absolute monarchy as a form of organization of power is much older than the concept of absolutism as an era European history. It goes back to Roman law, to the formula of the 2nd century lawyer Ulpian: princeps legibus solutus (or absolutus) est (the sovereign is not bound by laws). It was used in the Middle Ages and became widespread in the 16th century, becoming in fact the self-name of absolutist regimes. The background for the development of theories of absolute monarchy in the 15th-17th centuries was the formation of the concept of the state. In ancient and medieval political thought, the syncretic model, dating back to Aristotle, was dominant: the social, political, ethical, legal and religious levels of the organization of society were not completely different. On Aristotle's teaching about ideal state were based on the concept of “separate sovereignty” (F. de Comines, C. Seyssel, etc.), which united some features of monarchy, aristocracy and democracy with the priority of strong royal power, opposed to tyranny. In the 15th-16th centuries, in connection with the liberation of politics from religion and morality, the concept of the state also developed (N. Machiavelli’s treatise “The Prince”, 1532, played a special role). By the end of the 16th century, the word “state” (stato, etat, state, Staat) began to designate not the class or “position” of the king, but some abstract entity, the embodiment of public power.
The most important stage in the development of ideas about the state was the creation by the French lawyer J. Bodin of the theory of the indivisibility of sovereignty (“Six Books on the Republic”, 1576), that is, the highest state power that belongs entirely to the monarch, while it was assumed that absolute monarchy is compatible with the rights and the freedoms of his subjects and cannot infringe on their property. Absolute monarchy was opposed to eastern despotism, where the sovereign arbitrarily disposes of the life and property of his subjects. Even its most consistent adherents, not excluding Cardinal Richelieu, believed that the ruler has the right to violate the rights of his subjects only in extreme cases, in the name of saving the state (theory " state interest"). Thus, absolutism practically developed as a system emergency management, associated primarily with wars that caused the need to increase taxes. At the same time, absolutism also reflected a way of thinking characteristic of the era: people of the 16th and 17th centuries perceived the universe as a hierarchy ideal entities, in which the king and the privileged strata formed a continuum, and the human will was limited by the framework of the divinely established order. In the ideology of absolutism, along with rationalistic political theories great place was occupied by the idea Divine origin authorities.
Opposition to absolutism political theories . The theories of absolute monarchy were opposed by the ideas of tyranny and social contract. During the Reformation of the 16th and 17th centuries political conflicts often taken religious form. Opponents of absolutism, primarily in Protestant circles, considered fidelity to true religion (along with the right to property) to be the basis of a social contract, the violation of which by the king gives his subjects the right to revolt. Absolutism did not suit the “ultramontane opposition” either: the idea that the king receives power not directly from God, but from the hands of the people led by wise shepherds - the most important thesis Cardinal R. Bellarmine. Tragic experience civil wars gave rise to the idea that loyalty to religion is secondary to public order. Hence the idea of the absolute individual (that is, the individual taken before entering social groups, including the church) as the basis of society.
The decisive contribution to its development was made by the English philosopher T. Hobbes (“Leviathan”, 1651). According to Hobbes, absolute individuals are in a state of “war of all against all.” Overwhelmed by the fear of death, they decide to hand over absolute power to the state. Hobbes provided the most radical justification for absolutism, but at the same time laid the foundation for liberalism as a political and economic theory. The idea of the absolute individual destroyed the image of the universe as a hierarchy of ideal entities, and with it the intellectual foundations of absolutism. At the end of the 17th century, the English philosopher J. Locke used Hobbes's ideas to substantiate the constitutional system.
Absolutism as a political system. Absolute monarchies replaced estate-representative monarchies. In the 13th and 14th centuries, a system of bodies of class representation developed in Europe (parliament in England, states general and provincial states in France, Cortes in Spain, Reichstags and Landtags in Germany). This system allowed the royal power to receive the support of the nobility, the church and the cities in carrying out policies for which it was not enough. own strength. The principle of the class monarchy was the formula: what concerns everyone must be approved by everyone (quod omnes tangit, ab omnibus debet approbari).
A sharp increase in royal power began in the 2nd half of the 15th and early 16th centuries, primarily in Spain, France and England. In Italy and Germany, where national states were formed only in the 19th century, the trend towards strengthening state power was realized mainly in individual principalities(“regional absolutism”). Peculiar absolute monarchies also developed in Scandinavia (with the preservation of some class-representative institutions) and in Eastern Europe(with the underdevelopment of class rights and serfdom). The development of absolutism consisted in the formation state apparatus, rising taxes and the formation of a permanent mercenary army with the simultaneous decline of the medieval classes. In England, however, the standing army was hardly developed, and Parliament retained control over taxes. At the same time, the strengthening of absolutist tendencies in this country was facilitated by the assignment by the monarch of the functions of the head of his church.
The reasons for the emergence of absolutism. Absolutism and society. In Soviet historiography, the emergence of absolutism was explained class struggle the peasantry and nobility (B.F. Porshnev) or the nobility and the bourgeoisie (S.D. Skazkin). Now historians increasingly prefer to see in absolutism the result of social and cultural transformations of the era of the genesis of capitalism, which cannot be reduced to a single formula. Thus, the development of trade gave rise to the need for protectionist policies, which found their justification in the ideas of mercantilism, and the growth of the urban economy - in the redistribution of income from it in favor of the nobility. Both, as well as the enormous costs of war, which caused increased taxation, all required strong state power. The nobility became more dependent on royal service, the collapse of the social unity of the urban community encouraged new urban elites to move closer to the nobility and to abandon urban liberties in favor of the monarchy, and the emergence of nation states brought the church under the control of the monarchy. Absolutism, born from the collapse of the medieval estates, remained to the end a noble state, partially modernized, but associated with a “society of privileges” that was archaic for the 16th century.
Absolutism and culture. Absolute monarchs encouraged the development of culture and science and at the same time sought to control them. The state institutionalization of culture and science (the creation of royal academies and scientific societies) dates back to the era of absolutism. Cultural policy was important means strengthening royal power and “domesticating” the nobility, which was “disciplined” thanks to court etiquette. Together with the church, absolutism sought to strengthen control over the mass of the population, suppressing traditional folk culture and instilling in the people elements of the culture of the educated elites. Between the development of absolutism and the folding modern type individual who rationally controls own behavior, as well as the modern penitentiary system, there was an undeniable connection. Absolutism participated in the formation of the mentality and value orientations of people of the New Age (the idea of duty and responsibility to the state, etc.).
The crisis of absolutism. Enlightened absolutism. Although in the 2nd half of the 17th century absolutism continued to strengthen its position in a number of European countries ( Scandinavian states, Brandenburg-Prussia), from the mid-17th century the first signs of its crisis appeared. Its most noticeable symptom was English Revolution, and in the 18th century it became evident almost everywhere. Absolute monarchs tried to adapt to the development of the economy and secular culture through the policy of the so-called enlightened absolutism- flirting with “philosophers”, abolition of the most economically harmful privileges (Turgot’s reforms in France in 1774-76), and sometimes the abolition of serfdom (by Joseph II of Habsburg in Bohemia, and then in other provinces of Austria). This policy had only a short-term effect. Bourgeois revolutions and constitutional reforms of the late 18th and 19th centuries led to a change in absolutism constitutional monarchies and bourgeois republics. For the form of power in Russia, akin to European absolutism, see Autocracy.
Lit.: Kareev N.I. Western European absolute monarchy of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. St. Petersburg, 1908; Porshnev B.F. Popular uprisings in France before the Fronde (1623-1648). M.; L., 1948; Mousnier R. La venalite des offices sous Henri IV et Louis XIII. 2 ed. R., 1971; Skazkin S. D. Selected works on history. M., 1973. S. 341-356; Anderson R. Lineages of the absolutist state. L., 1974; Duchhardt N. Das Zeitalter des Absolutismus. Munch., 1989; Konocoe N.E. Higher bureaucracy in France in the 17th century. L., 1990; Malov V. N. Zh.-B. Colbert: The Absolutist Bureaucracy and French society. M., 1991.