Analysis Of Charles Montesquieu's Three Branches

The philosopher Charles Montesquieu believed in the philosophy of separation of powers in the governing body, where ambition would be pitted against ambition. Our founding fathers adopted this principle in our own government with our three branches of government. In order to keep each individual branch from becoming too strong, they ensured that each branch would check the others in the form of checks and balances. The principles of separation of powers and checks and balances have attempted to create three equal branches, so as to prevent tyranny; nevertheless, I believe that the three branches of government are not completely equal, and do not create a limited form of government. In document one there were three chairs, each was titled one

In document four, Charles Montesquieu wrote that “When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates...the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws…” He did not mention the Judicial branch which leads me to believe that the Judicial Branch is more of a referee for the other two branches, as depicted in document two. In that document there were two football teams, one the Legislative Lions, the other the Executive Eagles. The Judicial branch was embodied in the three referees off to the side holding the US Constitution. The Legislative Lions had six players, while the Executive Eagles had four players lined up. On each player’s back was a check on the other branch. This shows there are two more checks on the Legislative side. The caption of the cartoon was “How do they expect us to stop them?” This was said by one Executive Eagle player to another. This depicted that the Legislative branch has more power over the Executive branch, and the Judicial branch is not truly powerful, they just act as referees by making sure both abide by the Constitution, or the ‘rulebook’; they otherwise could be considered