Baron de montesquieu ideas about government

3:1—There is no great share of probity necessary to support a monarchical or despotic government: the force of laws, in one, and the prince’s arm, in the other, are sufficient to direct and maintain the whole: but, in a popular state, one spring more is necessary, namely, virtue. . . .

When virtue is banished, ambition invades the minds of those who are disposed to receive it, and avarice possesses the whole community. . . . The members of the commonwealth riot on the public spoils, and its strength is only the power of a few, and the license of many.

4:5—It is in a republican government that the whole power of education is required. . . . [V]irtue is a self-renunciation, which is very arduous and painful.

This virtue may be defined as the love of the laws and of our country. As such love requires a constant preference of public to private interest, it is the source of all private virtues.

8:16—It is natural for a republic to have a small territory; otherwise it cannot subsist. In an extensive republic there are men of large fortunes, and consequently of less moderation; there are trusts too considerable to be placed on any single subject; he has interests of his own; he soon begins to think that he may be happy and glorious, by oppressing his fellow-citizens; and that he may raise himself to grandeur on the ruins of his country.

In an extensive republic, the public good is sacrificed to a thousand private views: it is subordinate to exceptions, and depends on accidents. In a small one, the interest of the public is more obvious, better understood, and more within the reach of every citizen.

9:1—If a republic be small, it is destroyed by a foreign force; if it be large, it is ruined by an internal imperfection. . . . The evil is in the very thing itself, and no form can redress it.

It is, therefore, very probable that mankind would have been, at length, obliged to live constantly under the government of a

Source: M.J.C. Vile's Chapter 4 in Constitutionalism and the Separation of Powers (2nd ed.) (Indianapolis, Liberty Fund 1998).

Montesquieu

The name most associated with the doctrine of the separation of powers is that of Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron Montesquieu. His influence upon later thought and upon the development of institutions far outstrips, in this connection, that of any of the earlier writers we have considered. It is clear, however, that Montesquieu did not invent the doctrine of the separation of powers, and that much of what he had to say in Book XI, Chapter 6 of the De l’Esprit des Loix was taken over from contemporary English writers, and from John Locke.1 Montesquieu, it is true, contributed new ideas to the doctrine; he emphasized certain elements in it that had not previously received such attention, particularly in relation to the judiciary, and he accorded the doctrine a more important position than did most previous writers. However, the influence of Montesquieu cannot be ascribed to his originality in this respect, but rather to the manner and timing of the doctrine’s development in his hands.

Long before the publication of De l’Esprit des Loix Montesquieu had become widely known and respected through the publication of the Lettres persanes and the Considérations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romains. The appearance of his great work was awaited with impatience, and, once published, it quickly ran through several editions. When the work appeared it was clearly not a piece of transient political propaganda, as had been many of the writings we have so far surveyed—it was the result of twenty years of preparation, and was intended as a scientific study of government, encompassing the whole length and breadth of history, and accounting for all the factors affecting the political life of man. Montesquieu, in his Preface, made it clear what the work contained:2 “I have laid dow

The philosophy of John Locke and other Englishmen is most associated with the American Founding and its emphasis on rights that are embodied in the Declaration of Independence, the First Amendment, and other provisions of the Bill of Rights. But one of the framers’ most quoted philosophers was Charles Louis de Secondat De Montesquieu of France, better known as the Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755), an Enlightenment thinker who was best known for his magisterial book entitled "The Spirit of the Laws" (Lutz 1984).

Montesquieu's views on separation of powers and small republics

The idea most frequently associated with Montesquieu was the idea of separation of powers, which Montesquieu appears to have borrowed in part from the theory of mixed governments formulated by the Romans.

Evoking Montesquieu, the framers of the U.S. Constitution divided the federal government into three branches (legislative, executive and judicial), to promote checks and balances and protect liberty.

 
Montesquieu went to great lengths in classifying governments, which he thought had to be adapted to the people over whom they governed. Montesquieu argued that governments over large land areas needed strong central leadership, which he associated with one-person rule. Anti-Federalist opponents of the new Constitution accordingly argued that a stronger central government over all 13 states would likely lead to tyranny. James Madison combatted this idea in Federalist No. 10 by distinguishing between small pure democracies, where it would be impossible for citizens collectively to assemble to govern themselves, and much larger representative democracies, where he thought that representatives embracing wider interests than those in a single city state could refine and enlarge the public views.

Montesquieu distinguished between speech and overt destructive acts

Montesquieu opposed the practice of severely punishing individuals who criticized the government or

French judge, man of letters, historian, and political philosopher (1689–1755)

This article is about the French philosopher. For other uses, see Montesquieu (disambiguation).

Charles Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (18 January 1689 – 10 February 1755), generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French judge, man of letters, historian, and political philosopher.

He is the principal source of the theory of separation of powers, which is implemented in many constitutions throughout the world. He is also known for doing more than any other author to secure the place of the word despotism in the political lexicon. His anonymously published The Spirit of Law (1748), which was received well in both Great Britain and the American colonies, influenced the Founding Fathers of the United States in drafting the U.S. Constitution.

Biography

Montesquieu was born at the Château de la Brède in southwest France, 25 kilometres (16 mi) south of Bordeaux. His father, Jacques de Secondat (1654–1713), was a soldier with a long noble ancestry, including descent from Richard de la Pole, Yorkist claimant to the English crown. His mother, Marie Françoise de Pesnel (1665–1696), who died when Charles was seven, was an heiress who brought the title of Barony of La Brède to the Secondat family.

His family was of Huguenot origin. After the death of his mother he was sent to the CatholicCollege of Juilly, a prominent school for the children of French nobility, where he remained from 1700 to 1711. His father died in 1713, and he became a ward of his uncle, the Baron de Montesquieu. In 1714, he became a counselor of the Bordeaux Parlement. He showed a preference for Protestantism.

In 1715 he married the Protestant Jeanne de Lartigue, with whom he eventually had three children.^[