Throughout the process of the emergence and development of mankind, countries, populations, cities have changed, but the forms of power structure developed over the centuries have taken hold and have been further developed. 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.
Golden Age of Absolutism
The main features of absolutism appeared before our era and were tested in the monarchies of the ancient East. It was there, in the emerging states, that this phenomenon appeared, which went down in history as the principle of Eastern despotism. Its pronounced sides include disregard for the personality of a person, all aspirations are aimed at the prosperity of the state. The monarch heading the country was often deified and was an indisputable authority for the common people. At the same time, his power was so absolute that anyone could lose we alth, position in society and life.his member. 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 really played a positive role, but over time, the need for it disappeared. Nevertheless, European monarchs, having learned all the charms of autocratic power, were in no hurry to part with it. 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, many people began to be burdened by excessive guardianship by the state, political absolutism became less and less popular. The heads of state, trying to maintain their power, made concessions, but they, in fact, were insignificant and in no way satisfied either the common people or the emerging bourgeois class of owners. The famous series of bourgeois European revolutions of the 16th and 18th centuries put an end to the undivided domination 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 Of course, the monarchical dynasties have already gone, but they have been replaced by no less, and perhaps even more ambitious, absolutist projects. The emerging totalitarian states in Germany and the USSR increased the degree of concentrationunlimited power to its peak. Totalitarianism has become a kind of absolutism, in which the formula "think like me, otherwise you are an enemy" operates. Absolutism as a political regime still operates today, just remember Saudi Arabia. This is a kingdom whose monarch is not limited in his actions by any political institution and is free to do as he pleases, such a kind of oriental despotism in the 21st century.
Summarizing, we can say that absolutism is a transitional form of political regime, which, having coped with its tasks, is a thing of the past. But at certain stages, it reappears, 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.
