Montesquieu: The Spirit of Laws

Text: Montesquieu: The spirit of the laws, 1748

“In each state there are three sorts of powers: legislative power, executive power over the things depending on the right of nations, and executive power over the things depending on civil right.

By the first, the prince or the magistrate makes laws for a time or for always and corrects or abrogates those that have been made. By the second, he makes peace or war, sends or receives embassies, establishes security, and prevents invasions. By the third, he punishes crimes or judges disputes between the individuals. The last will be called the power of judging, and the former simply the executive power of the state.

When legislative power is united with executive power in a single person or in a single body of the magistracy, there is no liberty, because one can fear that the same monarch or senate that makes tyrannical laws will execute them tyrannically.

Nor is there liberty if the power of judging is not separate from legislative power and from executive power. If it were joined to legislative power, the power over the life and liberty of the citizens would be arbitrary, for the judge would be the legislator. If it were joined to executive power, the judge could have the force of an oppressor.

All would be lost if the same man or the same body of principal men, either of nobles, or of the people, exercised these three powers: that of making laws, that of executing public resolutions, and that of judging the crimes or the disputes of individuals.”

Activities:

1) Classify the text following the instructions we have worked on class (nature of the text, location, author, etc.)

2) Analyse the text (topic, main ideas, secondary ideas).

3) Historical context and conclusion (period, backgrounds and consequences, assessment of the text, and final summary).

4) Who represents each of these powers in a democratic regimen?

5) Extension activity: make a mind map with the app Popplet (popplet.com) with the current organization of the three powers mentioned by Montesquieu in the Spanish state.