Absolutism in France: A Historical and Legal View

Abstract

The article analyzes the problem of the designation of absolutism of the early Modern period in historiography, which brings us closer to understanding how the political and legal reality of the French absolutist society was combined with its ideological justification. The truth is achieved through the study of the transformation of the institutions of the state and social system at different stages of the development of this form of government. In the historical context, all the advantages and disadvantages of the estate structure of an absolutist society, as well as bureaucratic schemes of government, are revealed. Despite the process of centralization, tightening and streamlining of governance, the French monarchy gradually lost its progressive features, and the successes of the competent policy of the country’s best governments turned out to be temporary. Restraining the rapid development of capitalism, the kings continued to protect the remnants of the obsolete feudal system, and the socio-economic situation of the overwhelming majority of the population was deteriorating more and more.

Considering various approaches to the interpretation of absolutism, it is possible to trace both vertical and horizontal connections of the absolutist society. In addition to studying internal social processes, it is no less important to assess the role of the state machine in them. The work of the apparatus of officials in the era of absolutism became the final in the history of French feudal society, because the population itself, brought to an extreme degree of discontent, eventually took the liberty of overthrowing the institutions of the form of government in question. Returning again to the prerequisites that influenced the formation and subsequent strengthening of the absolute monarchy, it is fair to note that the unlimited power of the head of state has become a special phenomenon of the transitional era, combining the traditions of the «old order» and new principles of governance. History simply turned out to be so that it was France that, earlier than other European states, embarked on the path of transition to absolutism.