Absolutism: Where the ruler is an absolute ruler, meaning what he or she says, goes! This is the classic King or Queen form the medieval age, if fact if you've ever seen Alice Wonderland, the Queen of Hearts is a good example. Now, it's not to say all absolute rulers were mean or bad, King John, Henry V and Catherine the Great were renowned rulers, loved by their people. Absolutism is where all decisions of the kingdom are made by the Ruler. economic, political, domestic.... everything is decided b the King. This also means it was difficult to know where you stand since if the King changed his mind, the law changed with it. It wasn't until 1215 when King John was forced to sign a document called the Magna Carta in England, where the King had some rules that were written down and he was expected to obey them. This was also the beginning of a slow process where man was starting to discover he had rights. Click on the Button below to see a copy of the Magna Carta
Constitutions: Written or unwritten set of expectations for he government which have the force of law. It is the rules by which the Government is expected to govern the people by. Click on the buttons below to see copies of the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of the Rights of Man of the 1789 French Revolution.
Constitutional Monarchy - Where a King has limited rule over the kingdom and these rules are set down in a constitution.
Totalitarianism
In the years immediately after the First World War, a promising new era of democracy seemed to be unfolding. The autocratic regimes in Russia, Germany and Austria, were all overthrown and replaced by republics. The seven newly-created states in Europe all adopted the republican form of government. Democracy seemed triumphant in the post-war world. Yet within two decades, many democratic countries in Europe were taken over by some kind of dictatorship. Russia became a Communist state. Italy and Germany became Fascist states. Of the powers in Europe, only Britain and France remained staunchly democratic. Actually the First World War brought some negative effects to Europe.
Before we proceed, perhaps we should have an understanding of the two political terms—democratic state and totalitarian state—which will be used rather frequently by us. Between the two World Wars, Britain and France might be regarded as democratic states. Within these two states, the individuals had freedom of speech and of the press, of petition and of assembly, and freedom from arrest for political opinions. They could form political parties and elect the party or the parties they liked to rule. In short, the individual was an end in himself. The government helped to provide for the fullest development and security of all individuals. Russia (1917-1939), Italy (1922-1939) and Germany (1933-1939) might be regarded as mean totalitarian states. Within these states, the individuals had no right of free speech, free publications and free associations. The individuals had no right to form political parties. There was only one governmental party which imposed its dictatorial rule on the people. This one-party regime was concerned with the 'total' activities of its people—their work, their leisure, their religion, even their private lives. The basic concept of the totalitarian state was best expressed in Mussolini's well-known phrase, "all within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state." In short, the state was the master, the individual the servant.
Marxism
Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. Marx drew on Hegel's philosophy, the political economy of Adam Smith, Ricardian economics, and 19th century French socialism to develop a critique of society which he claimed was both scientific and revolutionary. This critique achieved its most systematic (if unfinished) expression in his masterpiece, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy (Das Kapital).
Since Marx's death in 1883, various groups around the world have appealed to Marxism as the intellectual basis for their politics and policies, which can be dramatically different and conflicting. One of the first major splits occurred between the advocates of social democracy, who argued that the transition to socialism could occur within a democratic framework, and communists, who argued that the transition to a socialist society required a revolution. Social democracy resulted in the formation of the British Labour Party and the Social Democratic Party of Germany, while communism resulted in the formation of various communist parties.
Although there are still many Marxist revolutionary movements and political parties around the world, since the collapse of the Soviet Union and its satellite states, relatively few countries have governments which describe themselves as Marxist. Although social democratic parties are in power in a number of Western nations, they long ago distanced themselves from their historical connections to Marx and his ideas. As of 2004, Laos, Vietnam, Cuba, and the People's Republic of China have governments in power which describe themselves as Marxist. North Korea is inaccurately described as Marxist, as both Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il have rejected conventional Marxist views in favor of the Korean "communist" variant, juche.
Some members of the laissez faire and "individualist" schools believe the principles of modern bourgeoisie states or big governments can be understood as "Marxist". Marx and Engels's Communist Manifesto include a number of steps that they believed a society would experience as workers emancipated themselves from the capitalist system such as "Free education for all children in public schools": some of these appear to have been implemented in the form of Keynesianism, the welfare state, new liberalism, and other changes to the capitalist system in some capitalist states. Some individualists believe that reformers in the capitalist system are (or were) "secret Marxists" as they support policies that are similar to those steps Marx and Engels said a developed capitalist society would go through. Some other individualists in common with Marx's theory of historical materialism see the capitalist reforms as harbingers of the future coming of communism.
To Marxists, on the other hand, these reforms represent responses to political pressures from working-class political parties and unions, themselves responding to perceived abuses of the capitalist system. Further, in this view, many of these reforms reflect efforts to "save" or "improve" capitalism (without abolishing it) by dealing with market failures, i.e., inefficiencies of the system. Most importantly, Marx did not favor "big government" as much as the "withering away of the state", i.e., the democratic subordination of the government to the people.
