Research Paper on:
Power and the Perception of Rulers

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
cement that power in another place or era, where some trait such as aptitude at oratory may be more valued. For this reason, those individuals who have found themselves in  a position of power and leadership throughout history tend to be a diverse lot that constantly fascinates historians. However, it must also be said that these individuals share certain key  traits and characteristics that are endemic to their acquisition of power in a more timeless and universal fashion. By exploring what the rulers of the past, and in particular the  tumultuous era between 1450 and 1750, had to say about themselves, as well as how they were regarded by their subjects, one can have a better idea of the psychosocial  and ideological perspectives that were common to individuals in positions of power throughout the world. This paper will draw upon a variety of historical documents either by or relating to  the characteristics of diverse rules, in order to demonstrate certain key realities about the nature of their power, such as the use of aggrandizement and distancing from the population, the  unilateral claiming of responsibility for all state achievements (military and diplomatic alike), as well as the use of religious ideology as a tool for subjugation and power-building. One common  way in which the rulers of the past have expressed their power is through the use of aggrandizement, or the inculcation of the notion that the ruler was somehow inherently  separate and distinct from the population from which he or she arose; something other than and above the common population. This can be seen through the use of aggrandizement in  descriptions of past rulers, whether the descriptions come from themselves, or from their underlings. For example, a description of Abbas the Great by one of his secretaries speaks of his