CLASS SESSION 3
Part I: Governmental architecture
Chapter 1: Horizontal structuring: separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers
Section 1: Separation of powers theory
Parag 1: First modern exponent: John Locke, 1632 – 1704
Social contract. Introduced the notion of separation of powers and social contract to hope that we are
respected and that our rights are upheld.
He speaks of three powers: legislative power, executive power, and federative power
Legislative power: power to write laws that reflect the law of nature
Executive power: administer force when the legislative power requires so. Power to apply legislative
power to specific cases
Federative power: the power to act internationally. In other words it is an aspect of the executive power
as it relates to international relations.
For locke, the judicial is a subtype of the executive branch
Locke distinguishes the functions/powers from the institution/organ. Once we distinguish the
function/power from the organ/institution on the other hand, we are then able to understand that one
particular function may be shared among different organs.
Parag 2: Second modern exponent: Charles de Montesquieu, 1689 - 1755
Montesquieu clearly distinguishes the three powers that are familiar to us: legislative, executive, and jud
icial powers
Legislative: The power that is responsible for enacting those rules which operate impersonally and
generally
Executive: It’s the power to execute the legislation that was enacted by the legislative power. It is also
the one that establishes public security and that enters in international relationships with other nations
Judicial: Punishes criminals or resolves disputes among individuals.
Montesquieu said we must separate powers because it is a way to preserve ourselves from abusive
power. If it is a single power, our liberty would be in danger. A single power would be likely to create
privileges for itself and its supporters and would then be partial when its interest or those of its
supporters are at stake.
Hence, the solution to avoiding this is to divide power into three different orders and assign them to 3
different orders/ institutions.
Creates a system of checks and balances.
Section 2 : Parliamentarism
