USA HISTORY

THE ROAD TO REVOLUTION 1700 1774

THE AMERICAN ENLIGHTENMENT INTELLECTUAL AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION

Question [CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
The system of checks and balances that still exists in the US government was taken from which work?
A
Two Treatises of Government by Locke
B
The Social Contract by Rousseau
C
The Spirit of the Laws by Montesquieu
D
Candide by Voltaire
Explanation: 

Detailed explanation-1: -theorist Montesquieu, through his masterpiece The Spirit of the Laws (1748), strongly influenced his younger contemporary Rousseau (see below Rousseau) and many of the American Founding Fathers, including John Adams, Jefferson, and Madison.

Detailed explanation-2: -What Is the Definition of Checks and Balances in the U.S. Government? In the U.S. government, checks and balances refers to the separation of power in the government, which is ensured through the establishment of three different branches: the executive branch, the judicial branch, and the legislative branch.

Detailed explanation-3: -Just like the phrase sounds, the point of checks and balances was to make sure no one branch would be able to control too much power, and it created a separation of powers.

Detailed explanation-4: -Montesquieu, a French scientist, originally proposed the doctrine of separation of powers in his book “Espirit des Louis” published in 1747. (The spirit of the laws). Montesquieu discovered that when power is concentrated in the hands of a single person or a group of people, a despotic government emerges.

Detailed explanation-5: -The first modern formulation of the doctrine was that of the French political philosopher Montesquieu in De l’esprit des lois (1748; The Spirit of Laws), although the English philosopher John Locke had earlier argued that legislative power should be divided between king and Parliament.

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