Authoritarianism: Difference between revisions

An authoritarian state is a type of government that imprisons and persecutes opponents of the leader, or ruling council. Even this type of state existing for thousands and thousands of years (as in the case of the Roman Empire and other empires), the concept of authoritarian state became better known and with the most solid concept with Louis XIV of France and Thomas Hobbes.

Louis XIV of France, House of Bourbon, was known throughout the realm as "Sun King" and "the Great" and is now known for his most famous phrase "L'État, c'est moi" ("I am the state"), in which he defined the absolutist state at the time. He was responsible for wars and opposing feudalism, as well as being a clear example of Absolute Monarchy. Absolutism was almost the norm of governments at the time, with the concept of republic and democracy dead just like the Roman Empire. Absolutism preaches a government based on a single leader and without any rules restricting it, often using religious motives to justify authority.

Thomas Hobbes, on the other hand, believes in a definition of an authoritarian state more similar to today's, based on the biblical character Leviathan. A "Leviathan State" is a type of state that would be strong and unshakable to avoid chaos (which would be anarchy) and human nature that would be violent (Bellum omnium contra omnes). He also believes that the state is just by the social contract and that life without the state would be "lonely, poor, nasty, brutish and short".

Currently, even though the republican system is more prevalent than the monarchical one, absolutism still exists in some countries and has been adapted to other countries with a republican system, known as despotism (even sometimes not being a leader, but a party or an oligarchy). They often end up consecrated in a democracy, in which power is abused to persecute only opponents of great influence and sometimes making questionable elections and excessive propaganda.