A little more than two weeks ago, precisely on 18th January, the French philosopher and writer Montesquieu would complete 330 year old, so this post is a tribute to him. His writings helped to advance humanity in the right direction towards democracy, justice and freedom. He fought against the cowardice of the powerful to the ordinary man. The unjustified oppression of the state. This post is a summary of three articles. The first was published at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montesquieu. The second was published at http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/TEXTS/Montesquieu_final.pdf. The third was published at /plato.stanford.edu/entries/montesquieu/#2
Montesquieu (1689-1755) was a French judge, writer and political philosopher. He is famous for his articulation of the theory of separation of powers, which is implemented in many constitutions. His father died in 1713 and he became a ward of his uncle, the Baron de Montesquieu. He became a counselor of the Bordeaux Parliament in 1714. The next year he married Jeanne de Lartigue, who bore him three children. While addressing French readers of his General Theory , John Keynes described Montesquieu as "the French equivalent of Adam Smith".
Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu was born at the chateau of La Brede, near Bordeaux, on 18 January of 1689. He studied law at the University of Bordeaux. In 1735, he explicitly began his work on "The Spirit of the Laws" which fill the rest of his life. In 1748, his book was published in Geneva, again anonymously. In 1752, the book was placed on the Catholic Church's index of forbidden books. In considering the context of his work, one powerful influence was a tension between the estate-owning aristocrat and the world of commerce. The tension of his upbringing in Gascony were made all the stronger by his life's experience. One of the most important of these was the changing political and social world of France over his lifetime. He grew up in the hierarchical, all-encompassing, world of the ancien regime, where politics and religion were joined and control was paramount. Followed a period of relative freedom and openness, France was still a modified ancien regime. Montesquieu could read about alternative more open systems and his interest in early Greek and Roman civilization gave him models. Yet what he needed in order to prove that an open and free world was indeed possible, was a large scale living example. This example was provided by his visit to England. Montesquieu arrived in England in 1729. He stayed for nearly two years and closely studied the political and social systems. It was in England that the ideas to be developed in both these masterpieces, (Considerations and Spirit of the Laws), took a definite form, in England that they found stimulus and inspiration. Montesquieu's ultimate aim was to understand the cause or causes of things; why some societies suffered from despotism, why northern Europe was growing richer, why the world's population seemed to have declined in the middle age. Durkheim believed that Montesquieu's implicit use of the comparative method was central feature of his work. Montesquieu made comparison the central problem of political sociology and thus directed the forms of inquiry away from Europe to all societies known. This is the task which is fundamental to anthropology as well. It also has the effect of putting one's own society into doubt: 'Montesquieu argued that we can understand political and social phenomena only when we can stipulate alternative to that in question.' There are several strands to his work which are historical and two can be mentioned here. Although his treatment of Rome has been criticized, Roman history allowed Montesquieu to do was to watch the process of historical change over a long period of time. Rome collapsed through corruption, and because the balance of power at the centre became skewed. His second interest was in the origin of modern France, which took him into many years of work on the historical sources. A third important part of his vision is what we might call 'structural' or 'relational' approach to history and society. Montesquieu's central concerns was how to maintain liberty and avoid despotism. He was aware from his own experiences that liberty was very fragile. The 'long abuse of power' was a recognition of Acton's maxim that "power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." This was connected to his idea of balance. Something which started as good, balanced and conducive to liberty could easily be perverted and swing to a dangerous extreme. For example, if there was no equality between people, democracy was impossible. Without vigilance, tyranny might one day govern. The reason for this is relatively simple. The most people in his time were governed by despotism. because any other form of government necessitates careful management and planning, with the most through balancing and regulating of political power. The 'fury of war' brings another danger, which Montesquieu showed historically in his account of the way in which incessant warfare had been the root of the collapse of liberty in ancient Rome, and also in the ruin caused by Louis XIV's endless wars. Montesquieu managed to speak out against cruelty, slavery and absolutism, despite the dangers he faced. More importantly, he kept his regard for liberty, his freedom of spirit alive despite the pressures of the French state and the Inquisition. Through his integrity and support for liberty Montesquieu provided a model which would later inspire the two greatest revolutionary movements towards liberty of modern times. He was constantly cited and quoted by figures in both American and French revolutions.
In a democracy, the people are sovereign. They may govern through ministers, senators, etc. But they must have the power of choosing their representatives for themselves. The principle of democracy is political virtue, by which Montesquieu means "love of the laws and of our country" including its constitution. The form of a democratic government makes the laws governing suffrage and voting fundamental. The need to protect its principle imposes far more extensive requirements. A democracy must educate its citizens to identify their interests with the interests of their country, and should have censors to preserve its mores. To provide citizens with liberty, a government must have certain features. First, since "constant experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it... it is necessary from the very nature of things that power should be a check to power. This is achieved through the separation of the executive, legislative and judicial power of government.
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