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the principle or the exercise of complete and unrestricted power in government.
any theory holding that values, principles, etc., are and not relative, dependent, or changeable.
Contemporary Examples

In this new climate anything less than anti-abortion absolutism is unacceptable.
GOP Grassroots Furious at Romney Over Akin, Abortion Rape Exception Michelle Goldberg August 22, 2012

The Russian Revolution summed everything up in an instant: in place of dynastic rule, absolutism of a different kind.
Can We Divorce Our Elites? James Poulos April 12, 2014

What are some great works of literature that you admire for their ability to combat dictatorship and absolutism?
Ismail Kadare: How I Write Noah Charney January 30, 2013

Historical Examples

But beneath was the continual struggle for absolutism on the part of the monarch and emancipation on the part of the people.
Little Books About Old Furniture. Volume II. The Period of Queen Anne J. P. Blake

If Romanism is to be the religion of the State, let it be allied with absolutism.
Diary And Notes Of Horace Templeton, Esq. Charles James Lever

They prepared to undo the work of absolutism by the hand of absolutism.
Lectures on the French Revolution John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton

On the other hand, they marked the approach of France to absolutism.
The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte William Milligan Sloane

This explains his detestation of all forms of absolutism on the one hand, and what he always called “the revolution” on the other.
The History of Freedom John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton

absolutism may thrive without a God, for it needs only slaves.
Atheism Among the People Alphonse de Lamartine

He must have had some experience with the absolutism of both good and evil.
Preaching and Paganism Albert Parker Fitch

noun
the principle or practice of a political system in which unrestricted power is vested in a monarch, dictator, etc; despotism
(philosophy)

any theory which holds that truth or moral or aesthetic value is absolute and universal and not relative to individual or social differences Compare relativism
the doctrine that reality is unitary and unchanging and that change and diversity are mere illusion See also monism (sense 2), pluralism (sense 5b)

(Christianity) an uncompromising form of the doctrine of predestination
n.

1753 in theology; 1830 in politics, in which sense it was first used by British reformer and parliamentarian Maj. Gen. Thomas Perronet Thompson (1783-1869). See absolute and -ism.