Montesquieu : A French Political Philosopher

In The Spirit of Laws, Montesquieu states, “Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments… It is only there where there is no abuse of power… To prevent this abuse, it is necessary from the very nature of things that power should be a check to power.” (Secondat) His revolutionary idea of checks and balances inspired the founding fathers and served as the basis of the democracy they were to create. "They [the colonists] also studied Baron de Montesquieu, who wrote that government should have a balance of powers between executive, legislative and judicial branches.”

What entity dictates life on the most fundamental level? Is it the government or the people who permit the government to exist? This is the main point of contention between Baron de Montesquieu 's Spirit of Laws and Jean-Jacques Rousseau 's On the Social Contract. Interestingly, their interpretation of different forms of government converge on the sovereignty of a democracy, but that is where most of their common ground lies. While Rousseau shares similarities on the sovereign authority of a democracy with Montesquieu, he departs by arguing how regardless of government, sovereignty always rests in the hands of the people. He also disagrees on how the populace should participate in the democracy and on their representation in government, making his principles more relevant today.

During the 18th century a European intellectual movement referred to as the Age of Enlightenment, or the Age of Reason, shaped the Western world with the introduction of concepts such as natural rights and the separation of powers. These concepts influenced significant events in history such as the French Revolution, which later on inspired and influenced the American Revolution against Great Britain’s heavy taxation. Furthermore, these significant events introduced the foundations of an ideal government, which stemmed from the ideas of the philosophes of the Age of Enlightenment. For example, John Locke argued that the duty of a government was “to protect the natural rights of the people” ("Foundations of American Government"). Also, Montesquieu

The UK is divided into parliamentary constituencies of broadly equal population (decided by the Boundaries Commission), each of which elects a Member of Parliament to the House of Commons. The leader of the party with the largest number of MPs is invited by the monarch to form a government, and becomes the Prime Minister. The leader of the second largest party becomes the Leader of the Opposition.

ideas about freedom and equality. Auguste Comte, a French philosopher, came up with a political

The two most influential people were Baron de Montesquieu and Voltaire. Montesquieu constructed the idea of the separation of powers in the government; he argued that in order to ensure liberty and prevent corruption and tyranny the three main powers of government, legislative, judicial, and executive, should be separate bodies able to check each other. Voltaire brought about the idea of separation of state and religion and the later years of the 1700’s he would push Denis Diderot’s Encyclopédie spreading the Enlightenment to other countries around the world; inspiring Jean-Jacques Rousseau to write The Social Contract and evaluate the idea of having the Government sign a contract with the people to protect natural rights and be bound by the laws. The Enlightenment in Europe would end however with the French Revolution as total chaos and violence dismantled the idea of people’s ability to govern

He was regarded as a co-author of the Federalist and became one of the most effective champions of the Constitution.

Author of the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson was a leading figure, in America's early development he wrote with such influential words in which help shape our government.

Several people believed that there were better ways to rule over a country. For example, Thomas Hobbes thought that people were born selfish and couldn't handle making their own decisions so they needed a stronger government; like an absolute monarchy. However, other Enlightenment thinkers believed the opposite. This made people question the way their government ran and people believed they deserved more rights. In the end, we gained a democracy. We created the Declaration of Independence, US Bill of Rights, The US Constitution and may more important documents. Rousseau helped form the ideas behind some of these important documents. He wrote the Social Contract which says that the government should rule according to the will of the people. Adam Smith also said that governments should not interfere with a free market economy. John Locke also believed that people should be able to rebel against their government if it was not protecting the natural rights of the people. Other philosophers contributed to the making of the government as well. Some including Montesquieu and Voltaire. That is how the American government was impacted by the

Imagine this, the year is 1777 and possibly one of the biggest mistakes in government was made, now imagine having the chance to change all of that. Well, one man did and his name was James Madison. James Madison was a very politically active man, he was a founding father and the fourth U.S. president. He was nicknamed “Father of the constitution” among many other things all relating to an accomplishment he has made. James Madison was a man who loved to do research and document things as they happened for this he has become very famous for multiple things one being his documents especially of his time as a political member. He was at first a Federalist who thought that a strong federal government would not be good for the nation and opposed to many things such as the Bill of Rights. James Madison was a very big influence with his writings in today's politics and in our government as a whole such as the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the documents of his time as a political member himself.

Thomas Jefferson is the most influential Enlightenment thinker for American society, because his beliefs in small government coupled with low spending, strict constitutionalism, and low government control over people’s lives helped mold America as we know it today.

Firstly, is Thomas Jefferson. He was appointed Washington’s first Secretary of State and the one who led the Democratic Republican party. He had many beliefs that shaped the way of American politics today. For example, Jefferson believed that we should have a strong state government led by the common people. He also said that America should be based on an “agrarian society”, because that was what the country made its successes on. One of the major views that he opposed to that Hamilton brought up was that America should have a national government. The reason he said this was because he believed that;

Montesquieu was another person that believed that there must be a separation of powers between government so that no parts of government had too much power. Voltaire believed in the separation between the church and state and additionally, the freedom of religion. Similarly to the Mayflower Compact, Rousseau believed that there is always a social contract between the government and the people and the people have the power to tear the government down if they believe that their rights are abused. The 45th President of the United States is one of the most noticeable presidents in the history of the United States. Instead of

Around the same time, Americans were also influenced by the works of Charles, the Baron de Montesquieu, a French political thinker. He believed that there were three types of governments; a monarchy (ruled by a king or queen), a republic (ruled by an elected leader) and a despotism (ruled by a dictator). In his book, The Spirit of Laws ,

Nechaev’s idea of political provocation was to anticipate the Russian government’s response and use the response in order to radicalize people. For example he sent letters to people, knowing that they would be intercepted and those to whom the letters were addressed to would be thrown in jail. In jail people would either break, which were exactly the kind of people Nechaev did not want, or they would harder and become radicalized. By committing an act and anticipating the overreaction of the government, Nechaev was actually able to use the unknowing Russian government in order to assist in the radicalization process. This idea applies to the Anglo-Saxon approach of dealing with terrorism. Unlike the Russian approach of blind persecution, the Anglo-Saxon approach ignores the non-violent radicals and only concentrates on violent terrorists. By learning from the mistakes of the Russians the Angelo- Saxon approach only deals with legitimate threats, thereby rendering political provocation useless.