Montesquieu, Charles‐Louis de Secondat, Baron de (1689–1757)

Abstract

Montesquieu was a French jurist and philosopher, a leading thinker of the moderate Enlightenment, and foremost influence on the framers of the US Constitution and more generally on the development of liberal constitutionalism and a globalized liberal politics. Montesquieu's chief work, The Spirit of Laws (1748), was praised in the latter eighteenth century as the standard of political science. While eventually eclipsed by the French Revolution and radical Enlightenment thinkers, its influence in Britain and America was enduring. His philosophy shaped thinkers ranging from Rousseau, Burke, and Gibbon to Madison, Hegel, and Tocqueville.