Montesquieu Dies: Architect of Separated Powers
Montesquieu published The Spirit of the Laws in 1748 and his publisher put it out anonymously — the ideas were too dangerous to attach a name to. He argued that political liberty required separating governmental power into three branches so none could dominate the others. The framers of the U.S. Constitution read him carefully. James Madison cited him in the Federalist Papers by name. The architecture of American democracy runs through a French nobleman who lived by a vineyard in Bordeaux.
February 10, 1755
271 years ago
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