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Books Like De l'esprit des lois by Montesquieu
Works that reveal how political forms produce the people who live under them
Montesquieu's great insight is that each form of government requires a specific animating principle in its citizens — republic needs virtue, monarchy needs honor, despotism needs fear — and that when the principle is corrupted, the form collapses. These works share that same analysis: political structures and human character are constitutively related.
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Les Lettres persanes
by Montesquieu
The satirical predecessor — the comparative political analysis that De l'esprit des lois develops systematically appears first in the satirical form of the Persian Letters; reading both gives Montesquieu's political thought in its two registers
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Buy on AmazonDu contrat social
by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The great counter-text — Rousseau's social contract theory begins where Montesquieu's analysis of actual governments ends; where Montesquieu describes how governments work, Rousseau asks what would make a government legitimate; the two together define Enlightenment political thought
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The Federalist Papers
by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay
The American application — the Federalist Papers cite Montesquieu more than any other thinker; the constitutional design of the United States (three branches, checks and balances) is the most successful application of Montesquieu's theory; Federalist No. 47 is the central text
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Buy on AmazonPolitics
by Aristotle
The ancient predecessor — Aristotle's analysis of the six forms of government (monarchy, aristocracy, democracy and their corruptions) is the model Montesquieu is adapting and transforming; the comparison shows what Montesquieu adds to the Aristotelian tradition
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Buy on AmazonLe Prince
by Niccolò Machiavelli
The Renaissance predecessor — Machiavelli's realist analysis of political power is the tradition Montesquieu is partly inheriting (comparative political realism) and partly transforming (adding historical sociology and the idea of liberal constitutionalism)
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Buy on AmazonConsidérations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romains
by Montesquieu
The historical companion — the analysis of Rome's rise and fall through political and moral causes is the method that De l'esprit des lois systematizes; read before De l'esprit des lois for the historical method in its most concentrated form
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Buy on AmazonTwo Treatises of Government
by John Locke
The English source — Locke's theory of natural rights and limited government is the constitutional tradition that Montesquieu analyzes through the English constitution in Book XI; Montesquieu translates Locke's English political theory into a comparative sociological framework
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Buy on AmazonDemocracy in America
by Alexis de Tocqueville
The 19th-century continuation — Tocqueville applies Montesquieu's method (comparative analysis of political forms and their animating principles) to American democracy; De la démocratie en Amérique (1835–1840) is the direct sequel to De l'esprit des lois in the French liberal tradition
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