ABSOLUTISM… a definition
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were hard times in Europe. The
Reformation produced a trail of strife and difficulty as the implications of
Reformation thought began to be imagined in areas outside of religion. In
particular, the Reformation doctrines of individual liberty, the priesthood of all
believers, in which everyone shared religious authority equally, and the Calvinist
idea of "voluntary associations," spread political dissension and doubt across the
face of Europe.
Divine Right of Kings
Political philosophers attempted to extricate themselves from these matters
through two different, contradictory approaches: "natural law" or "the Divine Right
of Kings." According to natural law political thinkers, there were immutable natural
laws which should govern states and their relations to their citizens and to other
states. According to the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings, a system of thought
derived ultimately from medieval theories of kingship, certain kings ruled because
they were specifically chosen by God to be kings. Surprisingly, both of these
approaches could yield the same result: the idea that the best form of government
is an autocracy, or rule by a single person. This person was not to be questioned or
disobeyed; this became known as "absolutism," since the monarch ruled with
"absolute" power, that is, unshared power.
Social Contract
Natural law yielded absolutism in the work of Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), who
believed all things, including human society, could be understood using principles of
geometry. Hobbes' central argument was that all humans are driven by two and only
two impulses: fear of death and desire for power. If left unchecked, human beings
would act on these impulses and live violent, brutish, inhumane, and solitary lives. In
order to keep these impulses in check, human beings, according to Hobbes, drew up
a social contract, which ceded authority to a single person in exchange for a level of
security. The single ruler would control the violent and selfish impulses of individual
members in a society through brute force; individuals would lose their liberty, but
they would gain security and community. Hobbes didn't care what form this single
rule might take, whether a monarch or a dictator, only that absolute power was
required to keep society together.
Jacques Bossuet (1627-1704) adapted the medieval concept of kingship in his
theory of the Divine Right of Kings, which argued that the king ruled absolutely by
will of God, and that to oppose the king in effect constituted rebellion against God.
Although people should be excluded from power, God's purpose in instituting
absolute monarchy was to protect and guide society.
Rights
The response to the philosophical challenges to the institution of monarchy
during the Enlightenment and the steady erosion of monarchical power and rise of
democratic sentiment during the seventeenth and eighteenth century, led to a new
form of absolutism: "Enlightened Absolutism." Eastern Europe became the game
table of three powerful countries: Prussia, Russia, and Austria. Each of these
countries was ruled by powerful, absolutist monarchs, who violently and aggressively
invaded and stole territory from weaker states. The most powerful rulers of these
states, Frederick I of Prussia (r. 1740-1786), the Hapsburg emperors of Austria
(Marie-Theresa, reigned 1740-1780, and her son Joseph II, reigned 1780-1790),
and Catherine the Great of Russia (r. 1762-1796). All of these monarchs attempted
to rule their countries with an absolute and iron fist while instituting reforms
based on Enlightenment principles. For instance, Frederick attempted to allow each
of his subjects the right to choose whatever life they choose to live. The Hapsburg
emperors revised laws to provide more equality under the law, eliminated the
institution of serfdom by which people were forced to work under certain
landowners, decreed religious tolerance and allowed for free speech. Catherine also
attempted to put Enlightenment principles to work by ameliorating the institution
of serfdom. Enlightened absolutism was essentially an attempt to justify absolute
power in its capacity to create a better life for its subjects, which included
establishing rights, which are, as you know, principles of self-rule.