Analysis of The Spirit of the Law by Baron de Montesquieu - Book Report/Review Example

Isaac Newton Montesquieu, one of the great political philosophers of the Enlightenment, makes an essential attempt to explain human laws and social institutions in his celebrated work The spirit of the Law (1948) and he provides a comprehensive comparative analysis of governmental institutions in the book. One of the most important aspects of the book is that it offered a very radical idea of the government in the eighteenth century background of political thought when he argued that the type of government varies depending on circumstances.

According to Montesquieu, the best government can be realized as the one which best accorded with the nature of the people. He maintains that understanding why we have the laws is essential for practical purposes and it can discourage misguided attempts at reform. “He believes that to live under a stable, non-despotic government that leaves its law-abiding citizens more or less free to live their lives is a great good, and that no such government should be lightly tampered with. [According to him,] to weaken those groups or institutions which check a monarchs power is to risk transforming monarchy into despotism, a form of government that is both abhorrent and unstable.

” (The Spirit of the Laws) Therefore, Montesquieu offers essential arguments concerning the importance of law in the life of people and the work The spirit of the Law has a crucial role in realizing various aspects of the government. The work is important for the various topics it deals with and the major topics of discussion include forms of government, liberty, climate and geography, commerce, and religion. In a reflective exploration of the work The spirit of the Law it becomes lucid that Montesquieu offers convincing arguments concerning government and laws.

According to him, there are three types of governments and they are republican governments, which can take either democratic or aristocratic forms; monarchies; and despotisms. It is also important to note that Montesquieu does not distinguish forms of government based on the virtue of the sovereign. Instead, every form of government has a principle, based on which the quality of the particular government is determined. Montesquieu offers an exclusive exploration of the various forms of government and he is one of the greatest philosophers of liberalism.

“According to Montesquieu, political liberty is ‘a tranquility of mind arising from the opinion each person has of his safety’. Liberty is not the freedom to do whatever we want: if we have the freedom to harm others, for instance, others will also have the freedom to harm us, and we will have no confidence in our own safety. Liberty involves living under laws that protect us from harm while leaving us free to do as much as possible, and that enable us to feel the greatest possible confidence that if we obey those laws, the power of the state will not be directed against us.

” (The Spirit of the Laws) Similarly, the work by Montesquieu is important for the topic of climate and geography which, according to him, affect the temperaments and customs of a country’s inhabitants. However, the wok is most important for its arguments concerning the forms of government which offer the readers a convincing idea of how the system of government works out in different forms. Work Cited “The Spirit of the Laws.” Baron de Montesquieu, Charles-Louis de Secondat. 2003. Dec 27. 2009. .