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The seventeenth century, which witnessed the development of absolute monarchy, also saw the appearance of the constitutional state. While France solved the question of sovereignty with the absolutist state, England evolved toward the constitutional state. If we could assign a very simple definition of the term of the term constitutionalism, it would be the limitation of government by law. Constitutionalism implies a very delicate balance between the authority and power of government, on the one …

…the right to participate either directly or indirectly (through their elected representatives) in the government of the state. Democratic government, therefore, is intimately tied up with the voting populace. When constitutionalism came into fruition, most men could not vote until around the late nineteenth century; and women weren’t given the right to vote until the twentieth century. Consequently, although constitutionalism developed in the seventeenth century, full democracy was achieved only in very recent times.