Montesquieu · Politics
Montesquieu’s most world-changing idea: that political liberty survives only when the power to make laws, the power to execute them, and the power to judge are held by different hands - so that, in his phrase, <em>power checks power</em>.
You learned Montesquieu’s doctrine that the legislative, executive, and judicial powers must be separated. Explain in your own words why he thought uniting them in one hand is fatal to liberty, and how separated powers are meant to protect freedom.
Leads to James Madison.
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