Absolutism refers to a political doctrine and practice of limitless centralized authority and absolute monarch. The absolutist system advocates bar any other agency from conducting a regularized challenge or check on the ruling party ( Monod, 2001) . On the other hand, constitutional refers to a form of monarch where the sovereign exercises authority in line with a constitution. The monarch acts as a non-political head of state under the control of a written or unwritten constitution. Early modern Europe experienced an absolute system of government around the 17th and 18th centuries, where powerful monarchs ruled Europe. However, most of the monarchs in present Europe are constitutional monarchies such that they are unable to influence the politics of the state. Based on the history of the European government, this paper seeks to compare and contrast absolute and constitutional Europe.
Absolute monarchs ruled Europe around the 17th and 18th centuries. Under the rule of these absolute monarchs, there was no form of checks or challenges on their power, and the monarchs did not share power with any governing body ( Monod, 2001) . During the absolute era, the monarchs ruled by divine right or a myth that their power came from God and that anyone who went against them was acting against God’s will. For example, when an activist or human rights body or any other person disagreed with the ruling monarch, then the individual or agency would be disagreeing with God. This system of monarchy discouraged the people from correcting the ruling monarch whenever anything wrong is done.
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The decline of absolute Europe marked the beginning of constitutional Europe. Ideally, the end of absolute monarch began when the rulers started abusing their powers. As a result, people started believing that the absolute system is precarious for the integrity and safety of their nation. Constitutional Europe limited the government by law such that there was a balance between the government’s rights and the right of the subjects ( Lyon, 2003) . The European citizens and other agencies were commissioned to look at the laws as protectors of rights and liberties. The control of power is distributed across different state organs such that they are all commissioned to reciprocal control and cooperation in ensuring the attainment of the state’s will. Moreover, unlike the absolute monarchy where the monarch gained power from hereditary or marriage, the constitutional system ruler was elected either directly or indirectly. This form of government prohibited other families from ruling the nation.
Compared to constitutional Europe, the absolute system was not that powerful, and the nation’s government was not uniform. The success of the absolute monarchs relied on how good they could solve financial problems, and the solution for the absolutist was the establishment of new state bureaucracies characterized by forced higher taxes. An absolute monarch is believed to have much impact on a country when then monarchs make poor financial decisions. For instance, when Louis XIV of France abused his power over money by allocating it to his Palace of Versailles and on wars, it led to the French’s budget deficit ( Lyon, 2003) . Nonetheless, the trend is different from constitutional Europe, where laws and regulations are controlling the ruling government. The constitution documents procedures for collecting taxes and boundaries upon which one had to rule. For constitutional Europe, the parliament has the authority of allocating funds to various sectors of the economy.
References
Lyon, A. (2003). Constitutional History of the United Kingdom . Routledge-Cavendish.
Monod, P. K. (2001). The power of kings: monarchy and religion in Europe, 1589-1715 . Yale University Press.
