On Montesquieu’s Political Thought

Montesquieu, a famous French Enlightenment thinker in 18th century, is regarded as the founder of jurisprudence and sociology. In his famous work, The Spirit of the Laws, he attacks violently the European absolutism, and he proposes a political system of the separation of powers, and checks and balances.Montesquieu suggests that the political-legal system of each nation is shaped by its unique historical, geographical, cultural, and traditional conditions. According to the unique geographical and historical conditions in different countries, Montesquieu discusses different forms of government. He inherits Aristotle’s thought of the Government, and holds that there are four types of government:Republics, Aristocracy, constitutional monarchy, and absolute monarchy. He opposes the absolute monarchy clearly, but appreciates the other three regimes. He analyses the advantages and disadvantages of Republics, Aristocracy, and constitutional monarchy, in order to establish an ideal political-legal system which absorbs the advantages of the three forms of government. He believes that the ideal regime should be one with the separation of powers and checks and balances. Montesquieu suggests that the ideal government should be divided into third branches:legislative, executive and judicial, and the legislative should be divided into the House of Representatives and the House of Peers. The executive held by monarch to carry out the will of the nation, and the judicial power held by the court. The constitution is the highest authority, and the king has to also obey laws. The three branches of government cooperates with one another, and also check one another, in order to prevent corruption and the abuse of power, and to safeguard the rights and freedom of the people.The ideas of Montesquieu against absolutism became a powerful weapon for bourgeois revolutionaries to fight against the feudal tyranny, and promoted European bourgeois revolutionary movement. And his theory of the Separation of powers and that of checks and balances became the theoretical and spiritual foundation of the modern Western political system. But Montesquieu himself is an aristocrat, and he distrusted the common people. His theory essentially represents the interests of the bourgeoisie and the Noble. We should investigate his thought in the stance and perspective of Marxism, discarding the dross and selecting the essence, in order to promote the development of the socialist democracy and the rule of law in China.