Part of: Complete Works, 4 vols. (1777) Complete Works, vol. 1 The Spirit of Laws

This is volume 1 from the Complete Works. The Spirit of Laws is Montesquieu’s best known work in which he reflects on the influence of climate on society, the separation of political powers, and the need for checks on a powerful executive office.

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Citation

The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (London: T. Evans, 1777), 4 vols. Vol. 1.

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Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Author)

Rousseau was both a reader and a critic of Montesquieu. Like Montesquieu he developed a theory of ideal government where to some significant degree the people would be sovereign. Both influenced the French and American Revolutions.
Thomas Jefferson (Author)

Jefferson was a careful reader of Montesquieu and took extensive notes in his Commonplace Book on Montesquieu’s political accounts and theories.
Edmund Burke (Author)

Burke often cites Montesquieu favorably, and his views on encouraging liberty in government mirror many of Montesquieu’s own ideas.
Alexis de Tocqueville (Author)

Tocqueville was heavily influenced by Montesquieu and framed his understanding of what will make democracy stable around Montesquieu’s ideas.
James Madison (Author)

Madison was also a careful reader of Montesquieu, and as Publius cite him in The Federalist Papers.
Alexander Hamilton (Author)

Hamilton was also a careful reader of Montesquieu, and as Publius cite him in The Federalist Papers.

Key Quotes

Politics & Liberty

The political liberty of the subject is a tranquillity of mind arising from the opinion each person has of his safety. In order to have this liberty, it is requisite the government be so constituted as one man need not be afraid of another. When the legislative and executive powers are united in…

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Critical Responses

Book

Montesquieu’s Philosophy of Liberalism

Thomas L. Pangle

This work gives an interpretation of Montesquieu and his importance to the rise of liberalism generally.

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Book

Soft Despotism, Democracy’s Drift Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville, and the Modern Prospect

Paul Rahe

This work compares the merits of different theories of democracy beginning with Montequieu especially with regard to liberty and despotism.

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Connected Readings

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Persian Letters

Montesquieu

This work precedes The Spirit of the Laws.

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Book

The Federalist (Gideon ed.)

Alexander Hamilton

These writings by Madison and Hamilton were heavily influenced by Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws.

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Book

The Cloaking of Power: Montesquieu, Blackstone, and the Rise of Judicial Activism

Paul Carrese

This work analyzes how the separation of powers with judges at the center of the competing powers became our model of democratic republicanism.

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Book

The Two Treatises of Civil Government (Hollis ed.)

Thomas Hollis

This work precedes Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws but is often used as a point of comparison on issues of democracy and liberalism generally.

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Book

Montesquieu and Rousseau: Forerunners of Sociology

Emile Durkheim

This book argues for what is expressed in the title by someone who was himself a founder of sociology.

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Video

Who was Montesquieu?

Henry C. Clark

Liberty Fund Books

A brief video introduction to Montesquieu.

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