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Charles de Secondat, Baron de la Brede et de Montesquieu

(1689-1755)

Charles Louis de Secondat was born in Bordeaux, France, in 1689 to a wealthy family. Despite his family's wealth, de Decondat was placed in the care of a poor family during his childhood. He later went to college and studied science and history, eventually becoming a law­yer in the local government. De Secondat's father died in 1713 and he was placed under the care of his uncle, Baron de Montesquieu. The Baron died in 1716 and left de Secondat his fortune, his office as president of the Bordeaux Parliament, and his title of Baron de Mon­tesquieu. Later he was a member of the Bordeaux and French Acade­mies of Science and studied the laws and customs and governments of the countries of Europe. He gained fame in 1721 with his Persian Let­ters, which criticized the lifestyle and liberties of the wealthy French as well as the church. However, Montesquieu's book On the Spirit of Laws, published in 1748, was his most famous work. It outlined his ideas on how government would best work.

Montesquieu believed that all things were made up of rules or laws that never changed. He set out to study these laws scientifically with the hope that knowledge of the laws of government would re­duce the problems of society and improve human life. According to Montesquieu, there were three types of government: a monarchy (ruled by a king or queen), a republic (ruled by an elected leader), and a despotism (ruled by a dictator). Montesquieu believed that a govern­ment that was elected by the people was the best form of government. He did, however, believe that the success of a democracy–a govern­ment in which the people have the power–depended upon maintain­ing the right balance of power.

Montesquieu argued that the best government would be one in which power was balanced among three groups of officials. He thought England - which divided power between the king (who enforced laws), Parliament (which made laws), and the judges of the English courts (who interpreted laws)–was a good model of this. Montesquieu called the idea of dividing government power into three branches the «separa­tion of powers.» He thought it most important to create separate branches of government with equal but different powers.

Despite Montesquieu's belief in the principles of ademocracy, he did not feel that all people were equal. Montesquieu approved of slav­ery. He also thought that women were weaker than men and that they had to obey the commands of their husband. However, he also felt that women did have the ability to govern. Montesquieu argued that women were too weak to be in control at home, but that there calm­ness and gentleness would be helpful qualities in making decisions in government.

 

ТЕМА № 20. SYSTEMS OF GOVERNMENT

 

Word List

 

to bind together	объединять(ся); связывать вместе
authority	власть; полномочие; авторитет
national government	центральное, национальное правительство
lo favor	помогать, поддерживать, оказывать помощь, способствовать
sub-national state	субъект Федерации
to strive	стараться, бороться, прилагать усилия
to infringe	нарушать; преступать (закон, обязательство, клятву); посягать (на чьи-л. права и т.д.)
to enshrine	надежно хранить, лелеять
due process	надлежащая правовая процедура
minority group	группа меньшинства
judicial review	судебное ограничение; судебный надзор
to overrule	господствовать, властвовать; одержать победу; отклонять, отказывать, отменять
arbitrary	произвольный, случайный; деспотичный
treaty	договор
issue	спорный вопрос, проблема
currency	валюта
to resemble	иметь сходство
Pan-European	Общеевропейский
to cancel	отменять

Text 1

SYSTEMS OF GOVERNMENT

Political federalism is a political philosophy in which a group of members is bound together with a governing representative head. The term federalism is also used to describe a system of government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central govern­ing authority and constituent political units (like states or provinces). Federalism is the system in which the power to govern is shared be­tween the national & state governments, creating what is often called a federation. Proponents are often called federalists.

In parts of Europe, «federalist» is often used to describe those who favor a stronger federal government (or European Union government) and weaker provincial governments. The same is historically true in the United States, with those who generally favor a confederation, or weaker federal government and stronger state governments, being called «anti-federalists.» In federal nations of Europe (such as Germa­ny, Austria and Switzerland), the term «strong federalism» means sub-national states having more power than the national government, in contrast with a centralist system. In Canada, federalism means opposi­tion to sovereigntist movements (usually that of Quebec).

The state or regional governments strive to cooperate with all the nations. The old statement of this position can be found in The Feder­alist, that argued that federalism helps enshrine the principle of due process, limiting arbitrary action by the state. First, federalism can limit government power to infringe rights, since it creates the possi­bility that a legislature wishing to restrict liberties will lack the consti­tutional power, while the level of government that possesses the pow­er lacks the desire. Second, the legalistic decision-making processes of federal systems limit the speed with which governments can act.

The capacity of a federal system to protect civil liberties has been disputed. Often there is confusion between the rights of individuals with those of states. In Australia, for example, some of the major intergovernmental conflicts in recent decades have been the direct re­sult of federal intervention to secure the rights of minority groups, and required limitations on the powers of state governments. It is also essential to avoid confusion between the constraints set by judicial re­view, the power of the courts to overrule the legislature and the ex­ecutive, and federalism itself.

A confederation is an association of sovereign states or communi-lies, usually created by treaty but often later adopting a common con­stitution. Confederations tend to be established for dealing with criti­cal issues, such as defense, foreign affairs, foreign trade, and a com­mon currency, with the central government being required to provide support for all members. A confederation, in modem political terms, is usually limited to a permanent union of sovereign states for com­mon action in relation to other states.

The nature of the relationship between the entities constituting a confederation varies considerably.Likewise, the relationship between the member states and the central government, and the distribution of powers among them, is highly variable. Some looser confederations are similar to international organizations, while tighter confedera­tions may resemble federations.

In a non-political context, confederation is used to describe a type of organization which consolidates authority from other semi-auton­omous bodies. Examples include sports confederations or confedera­tions of Pan-European trades unions.

The noun confederation refers to the process of (or the event of) confederating; i.e., establishing a confederation (or by extension a fed­eration). In Canada–now a relatively decentralized federation com­pared to more centralized federations like the United States–»Con­federation» generally refers to the British North America Act, 1867 which initially united three colonies of British North America (Prov­ince of Canada, Province of New Brunswick and Province of Nova Scotia), and to the subsequent incorporation of other colonies and territories. Despite this use of the word «confederation,» Canada is a federal state.

In politics, unitarisation is a process of uniting a political entity which consists of smaller regions, either by canceling the regions completely or by transferring their power to the central government. Politics which favors this process is called unitarism. Opposite process is called regionalization.

A unitary state usually has a unicameral legislature. Furthermore, the smaller regions within a unitary state do not have a contract (con­stitution) with the larger, more centralized government. Thus, the smaller regions government and powers are not «protected» by being entrenched in the constitution. Regionalization and notarization are often confused with, respectively, decentralization and centralization.

EXERCISES