Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

Absolutism

The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary · Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922

The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary

That government in which public power is vested in some person or persons, unchecked and uncontrolled by any law or institution. The word was first used at the beginning of this century, in Spain, where he who was in favor of the absolute power of the king, and opposed to the constitutional system introduced by the Cortes during the struggle with the French, was called absolutista,