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Baron de Montesquieu, Charles-Louis de Secondat

Hilary Bok · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy · 2014

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Hilary Bok
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2026-09-01

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EstablishedMontesquieu's De l'esprit des lois (1748) argued that liberty is endangered when legislative and executive power are united. In The Federalist Nos. 47 and 51 Madison adapted the idea to the US Constitution as a system of partly overlapping powers that check one another rather than complete separation.EstablishedIn The Spirit of the Laws (1748) Montesquieu distinguished republican, monarchical and despotic governments and argued for a separation of legislative, executive and judicial power under the rule of law.