absolutism

American  

[ab-suh-loo-tiz-uhm] / ˈæb sə luˌtɪz əm /

noun

1. the principle or the exercise of complete and unrestricted power in government.

   Synonyms:

   totalitarianism

2. any theory holding that values, principles, etc., are absolute and not relative, dependent, or changeable.

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absolutism British  

/ ˈæbsəluːˌtɪzəm /

noun

1. the principle or practice of a political system in which unrestricted power is vested in a monarch, dictator, etc; despotism

2. philosophy

   1. any theory which holds that truth or moral or aesthetic value is absolute and universal and not relative to individual or social differences Compare relativism

   2. the doctrine that reality is unitary and unchanging and that change and diversity are mere illusion See also monism pluralism

3. Christianity an uncompromising form of the doctrine of predestination

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Other Word Forms

• absolutist
  noun
• absolutistic
  adjective
• absolutistically
  adverb
• nonabsolutist
  noun
• nonabsolutistic
  adjective
• nonabsolutistically
  adverb
• proabsolutism
  noun
• proabsolutist
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of absolutism

First recorded in 1745–55

Explanation

Absolutism is the principle of complete and unrestricted government power, usually in the hands of one person, a dictator or despot. This word sounds big, but it's really just an extension of the word absolute. If you have absolute power, you control everything. The problem with this is that absolutism can survive only through dominance, threat of punishment, and violence — in other words, tyranny. And, as the British historian Lord Acton noted in 1887, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Example Sentences

Absolutism is always reductive, and therefore, like the inability to sympathize with one’s enemies, is an anathema to art.

From Slate • Mar. 10, 2021

Absolutism is Winterson's forte, and it's the perfect mode to verify supernatural events when they occur.

From The Guardian • Aug. 16, 2012

Absolutism was the political belief that one ruler should hold all the power within the boundaries of a country.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2012

At present we have not the delusions of Absolutism that may have translated some of the positivists of the nineteenth century to heaven.

From The Book of the Damned by Fort, Charles

Absolutism, r�le of, in outgrowing economic basis, 69; in promoting industry and science, 69, 70; as an end in itself, 70-71.

From Our Revolution Essays on Working-Class and International Revolution, 1904-1917 by Trotzky, Leon Davidovich