the.com/absolutism
The dream that one person should never have to say 'let me check with the team.'
means A political or philosophical system in which authority is total and unlimited — usually one ruler holding absolute power, answerable to no law or body.
from From Latin 'absolutus,' meaning 'loosened from, set free, complete' — the past participle of 'absolvere' ('to release, absolve'), built from 'ab-' (away) and 'solvere' (to loosen). The same root gives us 'absolve' and 'absolute.' The political sense — power 'loosed' from all restraint — bloomed in the 19th century to describe and critique monarchies that recognized no limits, with the '-ism' tacked on to name it as a doctrine. So at heart it means power untied, set loose from every check.
- divine excuse
- Kings claimed God hired them directly, no interview
- sun king
- Louis XIV allegedly said he was the state
- versailles trap
- Nobles distracted with parties while losing real power
- fatal flaw
- Absolute power needs only one bad heir to collapse
- guillotine endgame
- France's experiment ended with a very sharp correction
louis xiv france — french king who declared 'l'état, c'est moi' and ruled without parliament from 1643-1715
peter the great russia — russian tsar who centralized power and transformed governance 1682-1725
frederick ii prussia — prussian king who epitomized enlightened absolutism, ruling 1740-1786