There are many forms of state. However, not everyone can explain, for example, what absolutism or capitalism is. From this point of view, it is necessary to carefully consider them. For example, especially close attention needs to be paid to the question of what absolutism is. From Latin this word is translated as “unlimited” or “independent”.
What is absolutism from the point of view of the political system? The answer to this question is quite simple to give, without going into special details. Absolutism is one of the forms of a feudal state that arose during the period of the emergence of capitalism and the decomposition of feudal relations.
From a formal legal position, answer the question “What is absolutism?” can be as follows. The head of state is considered as the main and, in fact, the only source of legislative power in the country. He is also the executive branch. The monarch establishes all laws and can fully dispose of the state budget and treasury. It is in the conditions of harsh absolutism that the most critical degree of centralization of power is achieved in the hands of one person, while a detailed judicial and tax apparatus (bureaucracy) is created. A standing army is being created.
What is absolutism from a social point of view? The social support of such a political system is the nobles. However, at the same time, the absolute monarchy completely plays on the contradictions between the noble class and the bourgeoisie, which nevertheless, although it does not claim power, has sufficient influence.
At a certain stage in world history, it was absolutism that played a decisive, key role in socio-political progress. Using all his main advantages, he marked a struggle against the separatist movement of feudal lords and nobles, and made attempts to subjugate the church to the state. It was under this state system that feudal and political fragmentation finally disappeared. The foundation for capitalist relations was laid, the process of forming national individual states and nations in general was begun. However, at the same time, a similar system gave rise to the era of mercantilism and trade wars (a good example is absolutism in England).
However, even this factor positively influenced progress. The use of new economic resources to achieve the military power of the state, the competition between the bourgeoisie and the nobility - all this brought the era of capitalism closer.
What is absolutism in terms of its influence on history? In fact, all the features characteristic of such a system were embodied in French politics, where its heyday fell on the 16-17th century. English absolutism gradually grew into a constitutional monarchy. In Russia, Austria and Germany, the confrontation between the bourgeoisie and the nobility was less pronounced, and therefore did not find its response in such a centralized absolutism. In the same Germany, this regime took shape within the territories of individual small principalities. Already in the second half of the eighteenth century, the so-called enlightened absolutism began to flourish.
