Liberty

 Nora Mayal Boyle 

Dr. Roddy

IHSS

8 February

Liberty Blog: Nora

Although Montesquieu is often seen as a  very important figure in liberalism, his liberalism has often been described as “a liberalism of fear.” In his views, political liberty meant “a tranquillity of mind arising from the opinion each person has of his safety.” Montesquieu believed that the best way to ensure that members of any state had political liberty was through checks and balances. He believed that in order for this to happen, governments must be divided into three branches: executive, legislative and judicial. With the government split up in this  manner, each branch’s power could check and balance the others. In order for this system to work, the branches must be led and composed of different people than those that compose the other branches. In one person or a group of people held power in multiple branches, the government  could too easily become tyrannical. In addition, the balanced government must provide citizens with laws that protect their safety, but still leave one free to do anything else (anything that does not endanger or harm somebody else). He also believed that no laws should discuss actions that may be done accidentally, or those that may be hard to prove, sodomy, for example. He also very strongly believed that a truly lawful system should allow its people to prove, or plead their innocence if ever accused of a crime. Today, although all these things seem simple, and obvious, in Montesqieu’s time these were quite uncommon views.