ABSOLUTISM

Absolutism as a State of Rule

Absolutism as a State of Rule

Introduction

Absolutism refers to a political doctrine where absolute authority is granted to the kings and it was considered acceptable in the Ancient Regime of states such as Russia, Spain and France. The soul of absolutism is that a monarch cannot be held questionable for any of his acts to any agency, not even to religious organization.

Discussion

Although, the concept of absolutism was present before 17th century and some of its characters were already implemented, it was only in King Louis' regime that the absolutist principles were fully embodied. That is why the era from his regime time to 19th century is called “The Age of Absolutism”. This era of absolutism represents a period of history where the kings used to gather power and wealth. Louis XIV is considered as the absolute monarchy. He was called Sun king because just as the sun is at the center of the universe and everything just revolves around it, the same belief was his. He used to say “L'état, c'est moi” (“I am the state”).Many historians see the period of regime of King Louis a beginning of a modern state. This state had a centralized government along with civil bureaucracy, tax collection system and a national judiciary which provided justice to everyone. These practices were found impressive by many other countries which started seeing Louis XIV as a great monarch and because of this many other countries started seeing King Louis XIV as a role model and these countries tried adapting the system in their respective countries (Zmora 2001).

Getting the absolute power and then maintaining it for so long is not an easy task. Especially people go against you in these sorts of situations. Therefore, in order to accomplish this, Louis XIV built the Palace ...