Absolutism, Monarchism and Despotism. Historiographical issues and theoretical developments in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in European context

Absolutism has been studied in its practical (that is, legislative, executive, administrative) dimensions, but there is need for further scholarly work on its theoretical components, and on the relationships between the languages of absolutist theory and the realities of social experience and political practice. Instead of asking whether royal administration was and was perceived to be absolutist (a term whose usage in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries need to be questioned), our attention will be more on how thinkers across Europe defined the power and authority of monarchs and on how the whole idea of the modern state was thought and re-thought in the literature on monarchy. Another fundamental aspect of this project regards the place of national identity (its emergence and developments) in relation to absolutist political discourse. We will try to establish in what ways absolutist ideas contributed to create an image of the nation in different contexts in Europe.