Here Are a Few Things That You Should Know About Montesquieu

Montesquieu

Here are a few things that you should know about Montesquieu:

 He was born in France on January 18, 1689 and died February 10, 1755  One of his strong beliefs is that government should be broken into separate parts so no one part gets too powerful.  He had a hand in influencing the writers of constitutions all over the world including James Madison.  He separated administrative government into the executive, judicial and legislative branches.  While he believed that women would be effective governmental leaders, I also believed that a man should run the household.

Please answer these questions regarding my influence on modern American government after reading this article: (Source is Wikipedia)

Separation of powers is the political doctrine under which the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government are kept distinct, to prevent abuse of power. This U.S. form of separation of powers is sometimes also known as checks and balances.

During the Age of Enlightenment, several philosophers, such as John Locke and James Harrington, advocated the principle in their writings, whereas others, such as Thomas Hobbes strongly opposed it. Montesquieu was one of the foremost supporters of separating the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. His writings considerably influenced the opinions of the framers of the United States Constitution.

Checks and balances

Separation of powers is not absolute; it is instead qualified by the doctrine of checks and balances. James Madison wrote that the three branches "should not be so far separated as to have no constitutional control over each other." The system of checks and balances is designed to allow each branch to restrain abuse by another branch. Legislative Executive Judicial  Writes and  May veto laws  Determines which laws enacts laws  May not Congress intended to apply  Enacts taxes, refuse to to any given case authorizes spend money  Determines whether a law borrowing, allocated for is unconstitutional and sets the certain  Determines how Congress budget purposes meant the law to apply to  Has sole  Wages war at disputes power to the direction  Determines whether what declare war of Congress Congress has legislated is  May start (Congress unconstitutional investigations, makes the  Determines how a law acts especially rules for the to determine the disposition against the military) of prisoners executive  Makes decrees  Determines how a law acts branch or declarations to compel testimony and  Often appoints (for example, the production of evidence the heads of declaring a  Determines how laws the executive state of should be interpreted to branch emergency) assure uniform policies in a  Sometimes and top-down fashion via the appoints promulgates appeals process, but gives judges lawful discretion in individual regulations cases to low-level judges.  Ratifies and executive (The amount of discretion treaties orders depends upon the standard  Often appoints of review, determined by judges the type of case in question.)  Has power to  Polices its own members grant pardons to convicted  Is never immune to criminals arbitrary dismissal by Congress through impeachment proceedings Questions: Please answer on a separate piece of paper

1. What is the purpose of separation of power? (2-3 sentences)

2. a. What branch appoints judges?

b. What branch determines if a law is constitutional?

c. What branch appoints heads of the executive branch?

3. What is meant by the term "checks and balances"? (2-3 sentences)

4. What is a constitution? (look it up)

5. Does separation of power work in the United States of America today? Why or Why not? (2 paragraphs using 4 specific examples of it working or not working)