Detachable Subdivision
"Rivne Professional College of
National University of Life
and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine"
On January 18, 1689, Charles Louis Montesquieu was born in Bordeaux (France). He was one of the most prominent representatives of the Enlightenment and an outstanding political thinker. He systematized all the knowledge about the state and law that was already available at that time, brought them together into a single whole, and built a hierarchy of their interconnection and interaction.
Charles Montesquieu was one of the first scholars to distinguish between the concepts of "society" and "state". The scholar identifies the state as a historically necessary condition determined by objective factors of social development, and not as an arbitrarily formed organization. Ch. Montesquieu substantiated the idea that the emergence of the state and law, the diversity of laws are the result of the action of objective factors and regularities that constitute the "spirit of laws". Among such factors, he singled out geographical ones, in particular, climate, size of the territory, relief of the terrain, etc. Following the ancient teachings on the state and law, Ch. Montesquieu noted that the republic is characteristic of small states - policies, monarchy is better suited for medium-sized states, and despotism is better suited for large empires.
In his study of the state system, Montesquieu paid great attention to the contrast and analysis of moderate and unreasonable forms of government. He included democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy among the moderate forms, in which relations between the ruler and citizens are carried out on the basis of law in a legal form, and state power is divided between various social forces, institutions, and officials who exercise mutual control and deterrence from abuse of power and violation of laws. A vivid example of an unreasonable form of government is despotism. Here, state power is exercised arbitrarily, there is no distribution of positions of power, everything is concentrated in one person. The ideal state for a scientist is a free state, which is based on the concept of separation of powers, the purpose of which is to guarantee the safety of citizens from arbitrary abuse of power, ensure their political freedom, and make law a true regulator of relations between citizens and the government.
Charles Louis Montesquieu was one of the first to develop the theory of the separation of powers, which is still used today in most countries of the world, including Ukraine. "Any person endowed with power is inclined to abuse it...", the scientist wrote in his work "On the Spirit of Laws". In view of this, the rule of law can be ensured only by a clear division of power into three branches: legislative, executive and judicial, with the presence of a system of "checks and balances" to prevent abuse by any of them. Most of the theories of S.L. Montesquieu have not lost their relevance today and are successfully used in the organization of modern states.
Most of the theories of S. L. Montesquieu have not lost their relevance today and are successfully applied in the organization of modern states.
Volodymyr ZAKHARCHUK,
teacher of legal disciplines
