Political Liberty And Separation Of Three Powers

"The separation of three powers" has always been regarded as the most famous and popular part in the massive system of Montesquieu's law philosophy. However, when we focus on the structure of The Spirit of Law, we will find that the theory of "the separation of powers" could not be described as a independent department, it was combined with another conception: "political liberty": they are two steps of one process, the former could be considered as the result of latter's institutionalization. If we said that "The separation of powers" is the body, the "political liberty" is the soul.In the 18th century, when Montesquieu began his works, when despotism lead his golden ages, the modern meaning of "the separation of powers" was impossible to exist in the world. It's too riskful to declare that the sovereign powers should be divided into three parts in that period, so, what is Montesquieu's "separation of powers"?Why "three powers" are legislative , executive and judiciary one, but not others. The judges have neither money nor military troops, how could judiciary power became the member of the highest power's family?After talking about the relationship between law and many things , why did Montesquieu spent so much to research the theory of Frank's "Establishment of the Monarchy"? And this part has no correlation with other pats of the book or "the spirit of laws"?The key question is why a theoretical system named "the spirit of laws" could derive a form of organization of state's superior powers, and, what's the relationship between "the spirit of laws" and "the separation of powers"? Expressing these questiones , or associating these questions into a whole system, is the fundamental purpose of the first chapter of the thesis.In The Spirit of Law, "law" is regarded as inevitable relations derived from nature of things, as a result of the development of divine will which is continually affected by a prime reason, as a rational channel between God and all things. At that level, "law" gets his eternal spirit. This spirit cause differentiation of "laws", and set up borders between different laws, then, establish natural rules in these borders:Human being left the isolated "state of nature" and get into the the social "state of war" because of the accumulation of "knowledge". The differences in the sense of "war" distinguish the international law and national one; the complexity of the result of "war" distinguish the the political law and civil one. These laws have same origin but different nature; have overlapped connotation but different denotation. They were regarded as internal rules in law by Montesquieu, as the law's "law", or, as the true nature of "law". And "political liberty" was defined by Montesquieu as "a right of doing whatever the laws permit". Thus, the meaning of "law" became the key to realizing the connotation of "political liberty".If we consider "law" as the key to realizing the connotation of "political liberty", relevant states of government was the seedbed where "political liberty" generated in. "political liberty", exactly, is not somewhat like occult philosophy, it is impossible to come true without relevant circumstance of government. Montesquieu declared "democratic and aristocratic states are not in their own nature free". This declaration come after the explanation of "political liberty", just like it is a part of political liberty's definition.Thus, there are two questions:Firstly, what is the reason for the unconformity between "political liberty" and "democratic and aristocratic state"? For this question, we must research Montesquieu's theory of the two "states", especially the state of ancient democracy. That is the main content of the third chapter of the thesis.Secondly, according to the description about states of government in The Spirit of Law, when "democratic and aristocratic states are not in their own nature free", monarchy become the last hope of "political liberty". But, what's the connection between monarchy and "political liberty"? what is monarchy's unique nature which connect the "political liberty"? This is the question that the fourth chapter will answer.Monarchy's general aspect is easy to describe, that's a steady delta of the king, the nobility and the people. The nobility, stay in the interspace between the king and the people, is the key to realizing monarchy. For realizing the special estate, we must enter Montesquieu's research about "fief and "Jurisdiction of the Lords". The former relates to Montesquieu's opinion about the nobility, which is the key to realizing monarchy; the latter relates to the historical origin of the "judicature" or "judiciary power", which is the most obscure part of "The separation of powers". We will explain the issues before-mentioned in the section of the fourth chapter.After clearing away these obstacles, in the fifth chapter, we will analyse the theory of "The separation of powers" and "political liberty" directly and conclusively. Here, we will display not only the arrangement of "separation of powers", but also the motivation hid behind these arrangement; not only the differences between Montesquieu's "separation of powers" and modern one, but also the reason which cause these differences. We will try to display the system of the Montesquieu's thought in the roily and self-contradictary times three hundred years ago.