Primary Source: Excerpts from Montesquieu’s The Spirit of Laws

Handout G: Excerpts from Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws (1748)

In every government there are three sorts of power; the legislative; the executive… [and] the latter we shall call the judiciary power…

There would be an end of every thing were the same man, or the same body…to exercise those three powers that of enacting laws, that of executing the public resolutions, and that of judging crimes…

The executive power ought to be in the hands of a monarch; because this branch of government, which has always need of expedition, is better administered by one than by many: Whereas, whatever depends on the legislative power, is oftentimes better regulated by many than by a single person…

When once an army is established, it ought not to depend immediately on the legislative, but on the executive power, and this from the very nature of the thing; its business consisting more in action than in deliberation.

From a manner of thinking that prevails amongst mankind, [armies] set a higher value upon courage than timorousness, on activity than prudence, on strength than counsel. Hence, the army will ever despise a senate, and respect their own officers…