Montesquieu ideas on punishment

The philosophy of John Locke and other Englishmen is most associated with the American Founding and its emphasis on rights that are embodied in the Declaration of Independence, the First Amendment, and other provisions of the Bill of Rights.

But one of the framers’ most quoted philosophers was Charles Louis de Secondat De Montesquieu of France, better known as the Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755), an Enlightenment thinker who was best known for his magisterial book entitled "The Spirit of the Laws" (Lutz 1984).

Montesquieu's views on separation of powers and small republics

The idea most frequently associated with Montesquieu was the idea of separation of powers, which Montesquieu appears to have borrowed in part from the theory of mixed governments formulated by the Romans.

Evoking Montesquieu, the framers of the U.S. Constitution divided the federal government into three branches (legislative, executive and judicial), to promote checks and balances a