Separation of Powers Origins

Separation of Powers Origins

Separation of Powers: Origins of the Concept

Introduction to Separation of Powers Origins

The doctrine of separation of powers developed over many centuries. The practice of this doctrine can be traced to the British Parliament’s gradual assertion of power and resistance to royal decrees during the 14th century. English scholar James Harrington was one of the first modern philosophers to analyze the doctrine. In his essay Commonwealth of Oceana (1656), Harrington-building on the work of earlier philosophers Aristotle, Plato, and Niccolò Machiavelli-described a utopian political system that included a separation of powers. English political theorist John Locke gave the concept of separation of powers more refined treatment in his Second Treatise of Government (1690). Locke argued that legislative and executive powers were conceptually different, but that it was not always necessary to separate them in government institutions. Judicial power played no role in Locke’s thinking.

The modern idea of the separation of powers was explored in more depth in The Spirit of the Laws (1748), a study by French political writer Baron Montesquieu. Montesquieu outlined a three-way division of powers in England among the Parliament, the king, and the courts, although such a division (he did not use the term “separation”) did not in fact exist at the time.

Montesquieu followed earlier thinkers in arguing that there was a necessary relationship between social divisions and these different powers. In particular, Montesquieu contended that executive power could be exercised only by a monarch and not by an elected administrator-a view wholly discarded in the Constitution of the United States. Harrington, Locke, Montesquieu, and other writers saw the concept of the separation of powers as a way to reduce or eliminate the arbitrary power of unchecked rulers. Separation of powers thus became associated with the closely related concept of checks and balances-the notion that government power should be controlled by overlapping authority within the government and by giving citizens the rights to criticize state action and remove officials from office. See British Political and Social Thought.” (1)

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Guide to Separation of Powers Origins


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