The Spirit of the Laws

Three branches, separated so that no hand holds all the power: that idea is Montesquieu's, named and argued here before the Framers carried it across an ocean and built it. He studied the English constitution, drew the principle out, and warned that liberty dies when the power to make law, to enforce it, and to judge under it collect in the same place. The architecture of the American government is a reading of this book.

The French magistrate who gave the modern world the separation of powers, named and argued. He studied the constitution of England, admired what he found, and set out the case that liberty depends on dividing the power to make law, to execute it, and to judge under it among different hands. The Framers read him closely. The three branches of the American government are his idea, carried across an ocean and built.