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Encyclopedia entry
The Social Contract in the American Enlightenment
Published 2015
The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of the American Enlightenment
Encyclopedia entry
Published 09/15/2014
The Encyclopedia of Political Thought, 2 - 3
Absolutism is a political doctrine that arose in early modern Europe in response to the chaos of feudal anarchy and the violence of religious wars. Placing the king in charge of all public affairs, absolutism denied the claims of the Estates General in France and parliament in England. Thus absolutism in theory is the opposite of constitutionalism, even if in practice the power of the Stuarts and Bourbons was always less than absolute.