Montesquieu

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Life

• Early life
  • Born 1689: Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu
  • Born the year of the Glorious Revolution
  • From a notable and prosperous family
  • Educated at the Oratorian Collège de Juilly
  • 1708: received a law degree from the University of Bordeaux and went to Paris to continue his legal studies
  • 1713: His father dies, he returns to La Brède to manage his estates and inherits his titles
  • 1715 he married Jeanne de Lartigue (a Protestant) and had three children with her

• Career

  • 1716: inherited from the title Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu and the office of Président à Mortier in the Parlement of Bordeaux (a chiefly a judicial and administrative body at the time)
  • From 1716 - 1727 works in the Parlement's criminal division
  • Hears legal proceedings, supervised prisons, and dealt punishment
  • He was also active in the academy of Bordeaux
  • 1721: published the Persian Letters, which elevated him to a literary celebrity
  • He visted Paris more often, acting on behalf Parlement and the Academy of Bordeaux
  • Writes some minor works during this time
  • 1725: resigned from the Parlement and sold his interests
  • 1728: elected to the Académie Française and then left France to travel abroad.
  • During a visit to England, where he lived for two years, the system fascinated him.
  • 1731: Returns to France and begins to work on his masterpiece, The Spirit of the Laws and other works published anonymously

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Philosophy

The Persian Letters

• Epistolary novel consisting of letters between fictional Persians, Usbek and Rica
  • Within that genre of exploring exotic parts of the world
  • He tries to imagine what Europe looks like from an outsider’s perspective
  • It is somewhat humorous in tone
• Purpose
  • Later, the letters become more of an indirect critique
  • They describe a culture consumed by vanity, scholars that become blind to the world, a scientist that puts himself in danger for his experiments
• Politics
  • The character Usbek shares some of the perception of Montesquieu
  • He looks at the disadvantages and advantages of different political systems, the nature of political authority, and the role of law
  • The character, like Montesquieu, believed the best government is one that “attains its purpose with the least trouble” and controls men in “the manner best adapted to their inclinations and desires”
  • He notes how the french are moved by honor to obey the king, which is contrasted with Sultan rule
  • he regards legal reform as a dangerous task, approves religious tolerance
• impossibility of self-knowledge
  • Another theme
  • Usbek suffers from thoughts of his wives’ infidelity, not because he loves them, but out of jealous
  • He has issues with his wives, they feud, this is part of the drama
  • His eunuchs, unable to hope for either freedom or happiness, learn to enjoy tormenting their charges, and his wives plot against him while professing love

Grandeur and Declension of the Romans

• Explores why Rome fells

  • Rome’s virtues led to its decline
  • Contrary to the opinions of the time

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The Spirit of the Laws

• Laws and social institution
  • physical laws, according to him, instituted and sustained by God
  • Positive laws and social institutions are created by fallible beings subject to ignorance, error, and passion
  • Hence, the laws adopted across different societies are diverse, and the incomprehensibility
• Comparative studies
  • He felt that understanding different laws and social systems proves they should be adapted to variety of needs and must be examined thusly
  • Laws must be for the people, principals, nature of the state and country, the occupations of its natives, customs etc
  • They should have relation to the degree of liberty they people will bear; to their religion, the their wealth, inclination manners, customs
  • This makes something diverse and chaotic comprehensible
  • This enables an examination of what needs reform and how
• Separation of powers trias politicas
  • Judiciary independence
  • Nobility is a check on the power of the monarchy in a monarchy
  • Retains the idea of three classes: monarchy, aristocracy, and commoners
  • Legislative, executive, and judiciary power separate to allow the powers to offset each other
  • The powers should not appoint each other

• Conclusions

  • Believes that laws can be more liberal and humane, applied less arbitrarily, with less scope for the unpredictable and oppressive use of state power.
  • Abolition of religious persecution and slavery, encouragement of commerce
  • Lawmakers must understand the relation between laws and the conditions of the country and then the principles of the state in order to reform gov without undermining the gov

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Forms of Government

• Unlike Aristotle, he does not hold that forms of gov are distinguished by virtue, but whether the sovereign governs by fixed law
• Republic, monarchy, despotism are the types of gov
• Republican governments,
  • Either democratic and aristocratic
  • Patriotism is the virtue
• Democratic Republic
  • In democracy, people are sovereign
  • Love for democracy is love for equality
  • They govern through ministers, or a senate, but must choose these leaders
  • Values: political virtue; love of equality, law and country
  • It must protect suffrage fundamental
  • Must educate its citizens to identify their interests and the interests of their country
  • Territory must be small, laws that transfer property should aim for equal distribution, establish frugality by law
  • Corrupted by the spirit of inequality or extreme equality, which leads to the advancement of private interests and when people are seek to be equal in all aspects respectively
• Aristocratic Republic
  • One part governs all
  • Principle is moderation, restraint from oppression and acquisition of excessive power
  • Laws should protect the spirit of moderation, this is the virtue
  • Laws must deny some powers to the nobility, such as the power to tax, and foster moderation and responsible administration
  • Law should disguise power imbalance
• Monarchies
  • One person governs by “fixed and established laws”
  • This controls of the scope of the monarch’s power
  • Nobility and independent judiciary help
  • Law should be designed to preserve their power
  • Principle is honor, which comes naturally unlike those of the republic
  • Monarch must protect subordinate institutions, protect the rights of the nobility, and promote rule of law and rewards for honorable conduct
  • Corrupted when monarch destroys the subordinate institutions, rules arbitrarily, ignores laws, debases the honors his citizens might claim
  • First two forms destroy the checks of the sovereign’s power third severs the connection with honorable conduct and reward
  • Personal ambition and sense of honor work together
• Despotism
  • A single person directs everything by his own will
  • No laws or need to attend to anyone, subjects are slaves
  • It is a system of continuous corruption
  • Without conflict in government, there is no freedom
  • People kept obedient out of fear, that is the virtue, and pleasure from those that wield power
• Conclusion
  • Monarchical and republic govs require structures and citizens to have motivation
  • These structures must endure, otherwise the motivations fails and corruption occurs and the gov falls into despotism
  • Legislation must be really good to preserve the structure, it is hard, while creating a despotism is easy

Separation of Power

• Executive
  • Government'/head of state
  • Parliamentary system: Politicians vote, parliament elects or takes power
  • Presidential system: People (or states) vote for president
• Legislative
  • Parliament/senate+house
• Judicial
  • Court judges (independent)
• Reality
  • Executive and legislative are fused in some countries
  • Control over parliament means control over executive
  • Jurisprudence: Set by those who appoint judges/judges, this also constitutes law
  • Some theorize there is a 4th power: the civil servants/bureaucracy
  • Governments remove those appointed by the previous gov
  • The weaker the politician, the stronger the bureaucracy
  • 5th power: media
  • Politicians use the media, it directs the executive the power
  • Politicians also direct the media
  • 6th power: lobbyist
  • The worst power
  • Influence politicians, shape policies for the benefit of the few
  • It is a form of aristocracy
  • They benefit politicians by funding them and providing them with data they otherwise would not possess
  • Good lobbyists sell their information
  • Consultancies are used to justify action taken (a scapegoat, hired to come up with the solution gov wants)
  • 7th power: International organizations
  • EU, IMF, UN
  • Some nations are subordinate to EU law
  • Others are influenced by the IMF
  • Even the UN can make motions to influence policy in a country
  • There is not a clear division between forms of power

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Monarchy

• Montesquieu lived under an absolute monarchy
  • There is no separation of power
  • Louis XIV: L’etat c’est moi, no division between ruler and state
  • The Czars were also absolute monarchs
  • Monarchy was a custom
• Separation of powers in monarchy
  • A constitution, independent judiciary, and parliament/nobility/aristocracy can form branches
  • Rule of law keeps monarch is check
• Today
  • 43 monarchies today (25%)
  • Only have 27 monarchs (considering the commonwealth)
  • Europe has 12 monarchies

Climate theory

• State of nature
  • Lower taxes increase slavery
  • All men born free and equal, society cannot keep them so and need law
• Temperature
  • Notices northern countries were more free, attributes this to temperature compared to those in warmer south
  • Northern countries had seasonal work, needed to prepare for winter, southern had temperate climates or climate too hot to work all day
• Agriculture
  • More fertile lands have abundance and monarchy, less fertile lands have republics
  • Less resources leads to freer society, people with more resources have larger gov
• Ideal climate
  • French had a temperate climate, resources

Liberty

• Political liberty
  • "a tranquility of mind arising from the opinion each person has of his safety"
  • Also involves having laws that protect us from harm while perserving freedom to the greatest extent
  • Obedience to the law must ensure the power of the state is not used against us
  • Liberty is the right of doing whatever the laws permit
  • Proposed religious tolerance
• Features to ensure greatest possible liberty
  • Separation of powers
  • Laws concern only threats to public order and security
  • Citizens must protect themselves from punishment by committing no crimes
  • Law must be clear, and must be made so that someone can easily prove innocence

Impact