What impact did Baron de Montesquieu have on the creation of the Constitution?
1 Answer
Baron de Montesquieu contributed idea of the balance of power and checks and balances in the Constitution.
Explanation:
The Articles of Confederation was based on Rousseau philosophy of Enlightenment. The Rousseau's ideal was that people would do what is good for the community because people are basically good.
Rousseau felt that only the government and society caused people to be bad. So the Articles of Confederation allowed for least amount of government possible. The Articles of Confederation did not work.
The writers of the Constitution were open to a different philosophy of Enlightenment. Montesquieu's philosophy was that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The only was to prevent people and government from becoming corrupt is to limit the amount of power, any one person or part of government has.
The Constitution applied Montesquieu's philosophy in the principles of checks and balances. Each branch of government has limited power and its power can be checked or blocked by either of the other two branches of the government. Montesquieu's philosophy is the base of the American Constitution.
