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Hello, by the 18th century France was sinking under its sunking Louis XIV,

who was too keen on wall and exercising its power over everything and everybody.

That at least was the view of the political philosopher Montesquieu,

who set about diagnosing the problem of the decline of France and finding ways to reinvigorate the French Constitution.

He looked to Britain, for example, where he saw a long tradition of liberty in which the powers were held by different groups who could check each other.

He set his theory out in 1748 in his major work, The Spirit of the Laws,

warning against despotism and the weakness of republics and his ideas galvanized political thinkers across Europe and America,

inspiring essential parts of the US Constitution.

With me to discuss Montesquieu and his ideas are Richard Berg,

professor in the history of political thought at Queen Mary, University of London,

Rachel Hammersley, senior lecturer in intellectual history at Newcastle University,

and Richard Wartmore, professor of modern history at the University of St Andrews

and director of the St Andrews Institute of intellectual history, Richard Wartmore.

What was Montesquieu's background?

Montesquieu was born into a provincial family of nobles.

He, well members of his family, generation after generation, had served as soldiers fighting for the crown, as ecclesiastics,

but more especially as magistrates in the Parliament of Bordeaux.

...