Jean-Jacques Rousseau & Montesquieu — Political Liberty

Knowledge Themes

Structural Subtopics

• Montesquieu's theory of separation of powers (legislative
• executive
• and judicial)
• Checks and balances in modern constitutionalism
• Rousseau's concept of the General Will vs. Will of All
• The Social Contract and the transition from natural to civil liberty
• Direct vs. representative democracy in Enlightenment thought
• Concept of popular sovereignty and its ethical implications
• Comparison of human nature in the state of nature
• Impact of Enlightenment philosophy on the Indian Constitution's Preamble
• Rousseau's critique of private property and social inequality
• Montesquieu's views on political virtue and republican government
• Ethics of "forcing to be free" in the General Will
• Relationship between political liberty and personal security in The Spirit of the Laws