The major work of the philosopher Montesquieu.
De l'Esprit des Loix (The Spirit of Laws), one of the great works in the history of political theory and law, was published in 1748 in two volumes and consists of 31 books of 1,086 pages. It deals with a large range of subjects and is mainly known for the treatment of three major topics:
Before Montesquieu's work governments had been classified more or less empirically as monarchy, aristocracy and democracy. Montesquieu abandoned these categories and based the classification on social forces. Thus, the republic is driven by virtue, the monarchy by honour, and despotism by fear.
The separation of powers, the most important aspect of Montesquieu's theory, divides the political structure into the Legislative, the Executive, and the Judicial powers. A state that wishes to promote liberty should assign these powers to different individuals or institutions, which should operate independently. Chapter 6 of Book XI, the chapter where Montesquieu developed this principle, is the most famous part of his work.
Montesquieu always looked at society as a whole and considered religion as one of several social phenomena, and he maintained that the positive or negative outcomes from religious teaching can be assessed without reference to the truth of its doctrines. This assumes an absolute standard of good and evil, against which outcomes can be measured. Montesquieu leaves no doubt that aspects of some societies such as slavery, despotism and religious intolerance are intrinsically evil. This position makes him one of the founding fathers of the idea of Human Rights. It also led to the banning of his work by the Catholic church in 1751.
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