One type of government was absolute monarchy, which is consisting of the balance between king and nobles. King has unlimited power, he is not legally bound and during the economic or nation- state based decisions he was the responsible person. Also monarchs gain power either marriage or hereditary. In religion, there is no freedom which means government controls over the Church. They believed God choose them and acquire power for unity of their countries.
The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution established the many ideas borrowed from the Enlightenment. Before the Enlightenment governments of Europe were primarily Divine Right Monarchies, which means that the King were "selected by God and was God's spokesperson on Earth." In other words, to disobey or disagree with the king was to disagree with God. Not surprisingly, there was no division between Church and State (each country had an official "state" religion), no checks and balances, no separation of powers, no freedom of speech, and commoners had no rights. On the other hand, the nobility had many rights.
From today as mine by right.” Creon also now believes that as he is now king he is infallible and believes that his own laws should come above the laws of the gods. “But I am the law” Creon`s own attitude towards his own rule seems very autocratic, his opinion that a king does not need to listen to the people and make judgements he believes are the most beneficial to the state. “ I have never based my political principles on the opinions of people in the streets” “And I will act according to my own convictions” Creon believes that his actions to deny the burial of Polynices are justified because he believes that the gods will support his actions as Polynices was a traitor and Creon sees no reason as to why the gods would honour a traitor. “No, he must be left unburied, his corpse carrion for the birds and dogs to tear, an obscenity for citizens to behold! These are my principles.
However, the citizens wanted to make their own rules to follow, sensible and understandable rules. Further on Paine explains “the sun will never shine on a cause of greater worth?” I think that Paine is saying that it is such an issue that we should look to reform it in any way so that it is more fair to all citizens. The struggle of having a King or a Monarchy for the people at that time was difficult. The community wanted a more fair and equal government, while the king was not giving that to them. Let’s take for instance when Paine refers to the past writings of another author, Mr. Pelham “they will last my time.” The name of ancestors will be remembered for their great deeds by future generations with destinies of their own.
American National Government Discussion of Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” “Common sense is a genius dressed in its working clothes” Ralph Waldo Emerson Emerson’s quote is a great example of what Thomas Paine was trying to do with his famous work Common Sense. The plain language used by Paine spoke to the common people of America and was the first published record openly asking for independence from Great Britain. There were several key points Paine was trying to express to the common people. The most important of them are: the sole purpose of the government, the notions of monarchy and hereditary succession, and the reasons for America’s independence. Paine used Common Sense as a great tool to let the commoners and less educated to gain some insight on the role and purpose of government.
Ptah-hetep, advisor to king Assa of the Egyptian, shares his concept of leadership in how a leader should not let power corrupt them in how they run their society, they should be respectful of the people but not lower themselves to that of a person of lower class (Document 1). There are leaders who believed that they were sent by god to rule over all. Hammurabi believed that he was assigned by Marduk, god of righteousness, to bring about the rule of righteousness over the land. Believing that the wicked should be dealt with, while weak is protected (Document 2). Confucius argues that good men posing moral authority would rule effectively.
Bolingbroke strives to preserve his family honour and retrieve his rightful land, thus his ambitions prove him to be a competent co-ordinator. It is Richard’s irresponsible and puerile ruling mentality, and Bolingbroke’s ability to impose his powers and be an effective leader that led to Richard’s abdication. The Christian moral society in which Richard II is set, believed implicitly in ‘The Divine Right of Kings.’ This is governed by the ‘The Great Chain of Being,’ which is the hierarchical ordering of society and the power of a king as they are supposed to be ordained by God. Shakespeare portrays Richard as one who has
ID 198624 Humanities 2341 February 8, 2012 Values The principle values found in the Declaration of Independence are equality, freedom, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The major premise of the Declaration of Independence opposed an unruly government. Jefferson’s second paragraph states that all men are equal according to the rights that were given by God and to protect those rights the people should establish a government that served the interest of the people. During the Enlightenment there was “an absolute opposition to cruel legal procedures and arbitrary government.” (Enlightenment Values Matrix 3) Philosophers of the Enlightenment wanted to create a secular utopia, where people had the right to oppose an unfair government and speak freely. One way was the idea of a Social Contract; an agreement by which human beings are said to have abandoned the "state of nature" in order to form the society in which they live.
Orwell said humans will perpetually be at war because of a strong, centralised authority as in 'big brother is watching you'. In Hobbes' time the rulers claimed their authority to rule by virtue of divine right. God made them King and anyone who questioned the authority of the King was challenging God. Hobbes considers the nature of liberty under sovereign power and says that liberty means the ability to act according to one's will without being physically hindered from performing that act. Only chains or imprisonment can prevent one from acting, so all subjects have absolute liberty under sovereignty.
Absolute monarchs have always justified their rule, by divine right. Everything they did was seen to be okay and followed because God had told them to do it. But with the Age of Enlightenment, people began to question divine right and the rule of an absolute monarch. They begin to realize that the job of a king was to protect and to promote good changes to the nation, yet it was not happening. New ideas came from philosophers like John Locke, Montesquieu, and Voltaire.