29 DBQ: Democracy v Absolutism

Be sure to answer discussion questions

DBQ is on last slide, use information below to answer the questions

Absolutism and Democracy DBQ

The following documents relate to different types of governments.

Directions: Read each document carefully. Answer the questions on the last slide based on each document.

Document 1

Several of these ideas and quotes were expressed by King Louis XIV of France in 1660.

The ruler alone has the right to deliberate [think about] and decide. The functions of all the other members consist only in carrying out the commands given to them . . . . The more you give . . . [to the assembled people], the more they claim . . . The interest of the state must come first.

Things only become legal because I wish it, I am the state.

Document 2

This excerpt is from John Locke’s Two Treatises on Government, written in 1690.

Men being . . . by nature all free, equal, and independent, no one can be . . . subjected to the political power of another without his own consent [permission]. . . . To protect natural rights governments are established . . . . When legislators [leaders] try to destroy or take away the property of the people, or try to reduce them to slavery, they put themselves in to a state of war with the people who can then refuse to obey the laws.