ABSOLUTE MONARCHY IN THE SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES: A TYPOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

The article aims to examine the Scandinavian type of absolute monarchy, identifying the specifi c fea- tures of the political implementation and legal consolidation of absolutism in Denmark and Sweden. To achieve the aim, a range of methods has been employed, including the hermeneutic, systemic, and struc- tural approaches, as well as the method of historical analysis, and formal-logic analysis. Results. It has been established that the political and legal consolidation of absolute monarchy in Sweden and Denmark in the late XVII century demonstrates two distinct paths of absolutist state formation in Northern Europe. Both monarchies responded to similar challenges – prolonged warfare, fi scal crisis, and the need to curb aristocratic dominance – yet the mechanisms of legitimizing royal authority diff ered signifi cantly. It has been identifi ed that in Sweden, absolutism was established gradually and within a legal framework. The decisions of the Riksdag in 1680, 1682 and 1693 successively concentrated power in the hands of the king without formally abolishing estate-based representative institutions. The Riksdag itself became the princi- pal instrument for legitimizing royal supremacy, which ensured a degree of social and political acceptance of the regime of Charles XI. It has been emphasized that the absence of a single constitutional act meant that Swedish absolutism was legally fl exible, bureaucratic in nature, and based largely on administrative practice rather than rigid codifi cation. It has been proved that in Denmark, by contrast, the establishment of absolutism took the form of a sharp political rupture. The events of 1660 eliminated the estate monarchy and dismantled aristocratic poitical dominance, when the Royal Law (Lex Regia) of 1665 provided a clear constitutional foundation for unlimited royal authority. Danish absolutism was thus fully codifi ed, highly centralized, granting the monarch comprehensive and formally defi ned power. The key conclusion of this typological comparison is that Swedesh and Danish absolutism represent two distinct models:an evolutionary, estate-legitimized, and legally adaptable form in Sweden, and a radical, codifi ed, and classically absolute form in Denmark. These structural diff erences had a decisive impact on the political development of both states in the XVIII century.