Humanism & liberalism.

The ideas that the human is the measure of all things, and that moral & political philosophy claiming individuals have inherent liberties & are fundamentally equal, government exists for the people, authority is legitimate only when it protects those inherent liberties—the entire point of that was to reject as illegitimate any system of authority of unequal, exclusive power & privileges such as divine right to rule & exclusive hereditary privileges associated with feudalism.

The influence of these philosophies can be found in the history from the Renaissance through the Protestant Reformation, the Enlightenment, American & French revolutions, and trend toward constitutional republics & liberal democracies. Humanism backed challenges to the authority of the church in the Reformation by favoring plurality. During the Enlightenment, it argued that rationality could replace deism, promoted secular separation of church & state.

Humanism influenced the liberalism of the American & French revolutions ending the authority of monarchs & feudal traditions. The French revolution spread liberal democratic ideals throughout Europe while stimulating nationalist movements. Liberalism gradually eroded the authority of monarchs in constitutional monarchies like England’s until they became figureheads of liberal democracies.