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Montesquieu’s Separation of Power

During the 18th century Age of The Enlightenment, the idea of monarchs ruling by divine
right was called into questions (Dorling Kindersley Ltd., 2013). Several political philosophers
created a movement to investigate the power structure of the monarchy, clergy and aristocracy
system. Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Montesquieu were the foremost philosophers among
them. While Rousseau and Voltaire were focusing on the overall resignation of the governments,
Montesquieu further delved into the search of some sort of institution that would be protected
against despotism which is an absolute type of proponent governmental who typically exercises it
tyrannically and abusively (Dorling Kindersley Ltd., 2013). The main arguments of Montesquieu
were the despotism was the greatest threat to the liberty of the citizens. He continued to argue that
both monarchies and republics were also risked degeneration into despotism unless it’s regulated
by a constitution that prevented it (Dorling Kindersley Ltd., 2013).

Montesquieu was originally born as Charles-Louis de Secondat in the Aquitaine region of

France on January 18th 1689, but later inherited the title Baron de Montesquieu after the death of
his uncle in 1716 (Dorling Kindersley Ltd., 2013). Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède
et de Montesquieu established the ideas of ‘Trias Politica’ or ‘Separation of Power’ in his famous
publication ‘Spirit of Law’ which later inspired the Declaration of the Rights Man and The
Constitution of the United States (Berkin & Berlin, 2008).There are three new convictions in The
Spirits of Laws (Hazo, 1986). First, Montesquieu classified the governmental into three types; 1)
republicans; 2) monarchies; 3) despotisms based on each administration’s principles. Second,
Montesquieu introduced the political influence of climate and environment in general. And the
third, Montesquieu talked about The Separation of Power (Hazo, 1986).

Trias Politica is a famous theory of the separation of powers created by Charles de

Montesquieu (1689 – 1755) a French thinker during the Enlightenment (Susilo, 2016). The theory
of powers separations at first appears to separate the powers of the State in State institutions that
separate as the main idea. This idea is including putting a different people as holders and running
each of the State power (Siallagan, 2015). The theory of powers separation also appears with its
historical records of the middle ages, namely between the 14th to 15th century. The emergence of
this theory caused by the powers of government in Western Europe centered on the King’s hand.
In the run of these powers, the King had a lot of actions that leads to arbitrary deeds. In order to
prevent arbitrariness, then later taken from the hands of the power relating to justice, where the
power of justice was handed over to the judiciary. Due to that, later in the 17th century and in the
18th, appeared the concept suggested that the power to make any regulation must be taken and
separated from the hand of the King. Because of that action, then made the birth of the powers
separation theory which is essentially a theory of governance that aim in order to protect freedom
and to facilitate good governance with dividing or separating the specialization of State power
(Siallagan, 2015).

The development of this theory, if it’s analyzed theoretically, began to be developed in line
with the opinions that expressed by John Locke and follow up by Montesquieu. From what
Montesquieu expressed about the separation of powers, it separated by three powers. The
separation of roles and authority are divided into three functions; 1) The Legislative; 2) Executive
and; 3) Judicial. Those three branches had functions as mentioned in the Constitution of the United
States of America. Montesquieu said, there are three main pillars of the state authority; legislative
has the power to make, amend and repeal rules of law; executive has the power to execute and
enforce the rules of law; and judiciary has the power to determine what the law is and which law
could be used to resolve disputes. This doctrine means that if one of the three spheres of
government is responsible for the enactment the rules of law, that sphere will not also be charged
with the judicial decision or execution about them (Mojapelo, 2013).

This separation of powers fortified a stable government with minimal risk of decline into
despotisms for it ensured that no administrative body could become absolute, as each would be
able to check any abuse of power by others through the check and balance system (Dorling
Kindersley Ltd., 2013). Separation of power opposed the idea of one person or body governing the
whole administration which potentially would have a chance to rule and adjure tyrannically (Bok,
2003). There are a lot of variety meanings of the separation of power in United States of America.
The formations rules detailed in the separation of powers is experiencing the dynamics, but the
principles in the separation of powers remain the same. There are four aspects of the separation of
powers in the Constitution of the US; 1) The separation of roles and authority, 2) the separation of
personnel, 3) the election base not mixed between one another, and 4) the separation of institutional
support (Glassman, 2016). The separation is not only to separates the power in United States, but
it also can be used to create a rule so that each branch has the ability to supervise others. That
ability is intended to prevent any concentration of power in United States. The president has the
power to do the veto against the legislative, and the legislative approval is needed to lift the
president nominated regent position the judiciary, the judiciary has the power to review the actions
of Congress of the President, and the Congress could lower the President and Vice President
(Glassman, 2016).

Every congress in every state has itself role, and the role is shaped by the design and the
structure of governing institution in Constitution. Separation of powers is the key principles of the
Constitution. This separation of powers means that absolute separation of powers in government
worthwhile to actually avoid the arbitrariness in government itself. As we all know, the checks and
balance is one of the main principle of the separation of powers. There is must be a mutual checks
and balance in every branches, so there’s no single institution that has a higher power that the other
institutions. From the explanation above, we can conclude that Montesquieu’s thought is more
than just a perspective or the way to find a conclusion of the use of the absolute power. His
eighteen-century thinking has served such a clever guidelines for the prevention of an arbitrary
action that use an absolute powers to control.

References:

Berkin, Carol and Berlin, Ira. 2008. The Colonial Experience in American History, From Pre-
Columbian to the New Millennium. Philadelphia: The Independence Hall Association.

Bok, Hilary, 2003. “Baron de Montesquieu, Charles-Louis de Secondat” [Online] Available

at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/montesquieu/ [Accessed February 16th, 2018].
Dorling Kindersley Limited, 2013. The Politics Book. London: Penguin Group (UK).

Glassman, E Matthew. 2016. Separation of Powers: An Overview. Congressional Research

Service.

Hazo, Robert G., 1968. “Montesquieu and the Separation of Powers”. American Bar Association
Journal Available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/25724465 [Accessed February 15,
2018].

Mojapelo, Judge Phineas M. 2013. “The doctrine of Separation of Powers: a South African
Perspective” [Online], www.sabar.co.za/law-journals/2013/april/2013-april-vol026-
no1-pp37-46.pdf [Accessed on February 15, 2018].

Siallagan, Haposan. 2015. Problematics on Separation of Powers Theory Implementation. Law

Faculty of HKBP Nommensen University.

Susilo, Basis. 2016. American Political Wisdoms: Learning from Quotations. Surabaya: Cakra
Studi Global Strategis (CSGS).