ABSTRACT
The free society founded on the separation of powers is a perfected state of nature: the citizens enjoy the advantages of the state of nature without suffering from its inconveniences. In a free regime founded on the separation of powers, laws will necessarily tend to "permit" citizens a great number of things, widening the sphere of their "independence". In this way independence and obedience to the law will be reconciled. Fully constituted liberalism, which is fully constituted doctrinally only with Baron de Montesquieu, is based on two ideas: the idea of representation and the idea of separation of powers. Montesquieu shows how the liberal plan can do without the dangerous means of absolute sovereignty, as the perilous remedy of rebellion, without risking anarchy. The motivating spirit of Montesquieu's liberal system is to separate the will from what it desires, or to prevent each person from doing what he cannot prevent himself from desiring.
