Throughout the entire process of the emergence and development of mankind, countries, populations, cities have changed, but the forms of power structure worked out over the centuries have entrenched and received their further development. One of these forms was absolutism. This is such a device of power, in which the supreme ruler possessed all its fullness without limitation by anyone or anything.
The Golden Age of Absolutism
The main features of absolutism appeared before our era and passed the test in the monarchies of the ancient East. It was there, in the emerged states, that this phenomenon appeared, which went down in history as the principle of eastern despotism. Its expressed sides include neglect of a person’s personality, all aspirations are aimed at the prosperity of the state. The monarch, who heads the country, was often deified and was an indisputable authority for the common people. Moreover, his power was so absolute that any member could lose his wealth, position in society and life. With the collapse of the civilizations of ancient Asia and Africa, unlimited power appears in Europe. There, absolutism is the desire of rulers to build and centralize their countries; in the early stages of its existence, it did play a positive role, but over time, there was no need for it. Nevertheless, the European monarchs, having learned all the charms of the autocratic power, did not rush to part with it at all. Therefore, the Middle Ages is truly the “Golden Age” for absolutism.
At the beginning of the New Age, with the development of education and literacy of many people, the excessive guardianship of the state began to burden, political absolutism became increasingly less popular. The heads of state, trying to maintain their power, made concessions, but they were essentially insignificant and in no way satisfied either the common people or the nascent class of bourgeois owners. The famous series of bourgeois European revolutions of the 16-18th centuries put an end to the undivided rule of absolutism in the political practice of European countries. However, it is too early for absolutism to leave the forefront of world politics.
Metamorphoses of absolutism
Absolutism - an attempt to control everything and everything without the possibility of criticism - is reanimated in the 20th century. Of course, monarchist dynasties are already a thing of the past, but they were replaced by no less, and possibly larger, absolutist projects. The emerging
totalitarian states in Germany and the USSR brought the degree of concentration of unlimited power to its peak. Totalitarianism has become a form of absolutism, in which the formula "think like me, otherwise you are the enemy." Absolutism as a
political regime operates now, it is enough to recall Saudi Arabia. This is a kingdom whose monarch is not limited in his actions to any
political institution and is free to act, as he pleases, such a peculiar oriental despotism in the 21st century.
Summarizing, we can say that absolutism is a transitional form of the political regime, which, having coped with its tasks, is a thing of the past. But at certain stages he appears again, resurrecting from oblivion like a Phoenix bird, precisely at the transitional moments of history, when it is necessary to mobilize all the country's resources in a short period.