absolutism

System of government in which the ruler or rulers have unlimited power and are subject to no constitutional safeguards or checks. The principle of an absolute monarch, given a right to rule by God (the divine right of kings), was extensively used in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries; it was based on an earlier theory of papal absolutism (absolute authority of the pope).

Absolute monarchy is contrasted with limited or constitutional monarchy, in which the sovereign's powers are defined or limited.

Where absolutism is a tyranny no theoretical justification may be offered. But, if the rule is claimed to be beneficial or good, justification may be offered on grounds of the ruler's greater wisdom, or his or her claim to be authorized by a higher power.

In Plato's Republic the philosopher-king was to be granted absolute authority because only a trained philosopher was truly wise enough to rule; he was the shepherd of the human flock. In Politics Aristotle criticized Plato's view, arguing that the flock and the family cannot be compared with civil government.

Christianity and absolutism The predominance of Christianity provided for the possibility of justification of absolute rule as sanctioned by God, or God's representative on earth, the Church. During the 13th century Popes Innocent III and Innocent IV claimed a unique power for the papacy. This plenitudo potestatis they conceived as a general power of review over any question whether secular or religious. Boniface VIII extended the papal position in the bull Unam sanctam (1302). In the same year the theologian, Colonne, gave a philosophical defence of the absolute ultimate authority of the pope based on the idea that things spiritual are inherently superior to matters temporal. Only those subject to God, and thus to the Church, could lawfully exercise authority.

The theory of papal sovereignty was criticized by Marsilius of Padua and William Ockham in the early 14th century. This criticism, however, was not successful and the theory of papal absolutism became the archetype of the theory of royal absolutism of the 16th century. Machiavelli, in The Prince, argued that the head of state was omnipotent not as of right but if he or she chose to be so, though he thought that a state could only be stable if the prince acted in accordance with law and with regard for the rights and property of the subjects. His theory has been regarded as a fair picture of the internecine political life of the Italian city states of the 16th century.

The 16th century In England during the 16th century the question of royal absolutism did not arise, because, during the despotism of the Tudors, the power of the king was not seriously threatened. Absolutism as a theory, however, became prominent under the Stuarts. In France, however, certain Huguenot writers such as Francis Hotman were driven by religious persecution to question it, and to assert that the ruler was the servant and not the master of the community. At the same time Bellarmine, a Jesuit, defended the spiritual authority of the pope against the growing power of despotic national monarchies. He argued that the power of kings was secular and that only the pope has his power directly from God.

The 17th century In the 17th century Hobbes defended the absolute authority of the state, ‘that great Leviathan’, as the precondition of order and liberty in society. The state existed as the result of a voluntary original contract among members of society but the contract was not binding upon the ruler. For Hobbes, who had lived through the English Civil War, the choice was between an omnipotent sovereign and no society whatsoever. His theory was compatible with parliamentary government so long as it was strong government. Hobbes is almost unique among absolutist thinkers in holding that the benefits of authoritarian rule must accrue directly to individuals; the general will or, in modern terms, public interest is for him a figment of the imagination. Hobbes fled to France during the English Civil War and Louis XIV, who became French king while he was there, is often quoted as the archetype of absolutist ruler.

The 20th century The non-rational absolutism of Hitler and Mussolini was characterized by the idealization of the leader and the ethnic group: ‘Whatever the leader says is good for the nation, is good for the nation.’ A study of the absolutist states of the 1930s and 1940s in Germany, Italy, and the USSR reveals certain similarities; central direction of economic life, the suppression of free speech and political opposition, the cult of personality, and police supervision of the ruling party, are among the most prominent.

absolutism

In philosophy, a term that has been used to convey two quite separate and distinct ideas. The first, which is associated with Hegel, refers to the ideal and evolving nature of ultimate reality which Hegel called the Absolute. The second theory asserts the existence and authority of absolute truth, and could be summarized by the assertion that it is in principle possible to say of any statement that it is either true or false.

Absolutism in this second sense is compatible with fallibilism: that is, though theories are either true or false, people do not necessarily possess the means to decide which of these two alternatives they may be. The theory of absolute truth must be distinguished from pragmatism and instrumentalism, which hold that theories are true if they are useful or if they ‘work’.