User blog:Scrawland Scribblescratch/From Louis XIV to Palpatine: Absolute Leadership

Hi everyone, recently I came up with an idea. It's just a series of blog posts where I talk about different forms of government or political ideologies and ask you fellows some questions about it. I'll compare two leaders from the said form of government or ideology, often real vs. fiction. Consider it an "Epic Political Battles of History" weekly blog series.

This week's government is ABSOLUTE MONARCHISM.

As we all know, absolute monarchism has failed every time historically. But some times it was very successful until the reigning monarch died.

A fine example of this is Louis XIV. Also known as the Sun King, his reign over France for 72 years was the longest period of monarchial reign in Europe and also regarded as one of the best Bourbon monarchies in French history. Well actually, it wasn't that successful. He had a lot of problems during his reign, and there was obviously a great deal of wars in a 72 year period.

Now we move on to Palpatine's reign. Palpatine's reign was brought on by sheer wit, shrewdness, and excess planning. Louis' reign was hereditary. Palpatine kept his reign alive through force and brutal measures. Louis was regarded as the one person who had right to reign and sit on the throne of France. Palpatine was overthrown, but until he was overthrown, he did a good job of keeping almost everyone (looking at you, Rebel Alliance) as his obediant subjects who were too scared to act against him in any form.

In the overall, Louis XIV's reign and Palpatine's reign were both absolute, but Louis gained this position thruogh birthright while Palpatine had to work to get it. I think this is the principal reason that Palpatine was overthrown and Louis did not face an early French Revolution. To sum it all up, in an absolute monarchy, how the people regard one's claim to a throne is the key factor of whether or not that person gets to keep that claim.

So, which reign do you think was more effective and more powerful? I think I kind of made it obvious which one I choose, but what do you guys think? I'm simply trying to see what everyone's opinions are and how you folks view things.

And one last thing: do you support absolute monarchies and what are the chances of an absolute monarchy existing today? If you think that they could have survived, please tell me why and/or how well they would work, because if I think it's marginally feasible, I might stick one in a timeline somewhere in the late 1800s or early 1900s.

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I also had the idea to include a quote of the week to go with the blogs. Actually, it's a real quote, then another quote that is an allusion to that quote.

"I am the state." ~ Louis XIV, the Sun King (debatable)

"I am the senate." ~ Chancellor Palpatine, Star Wars

George Lucas explicitly wrote this line for the Chancellor in a reference to Louis XIV's absolute monarchy. By this time in the film (said film being Revenge of the Sith), Palpatine's plan had worked to perfection. He had completely rendered the Galactic Senate useless and effectively made himself the Emperor. There is one flaw in here though: we are not sure if the Sun ing really said "L'etat c'est moi," or "I am the state" in French, although it is fact that Palpatine said that.

Also, a joke of the week.

"What sits on the throne of Gaul?" "Louis the Turd."

Apparently this joke dates back to England from around 881 or so.

And a little random fact of the week section:

The trailer for Steven Spielberg's Lincoln finally came out. Can't wait to see the film.

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A jolly guten tag to everyone! And a farewell for this week!