Relation to others· Power and justicenamed middle
Constitutionalism
Axis: Relation to authority — Is a political authority that commands and coerces necessary, or should we free ourselves from it?
Power is necessary, but it is legitimate only if it is limited. Between the obedience owed to authority and the refusal of all domination, constitutionalism subjects power to rules and rights: we obey, but laws rather than men, and no one stands above them.
Movements 1
The Enlightenmentexplicit
Against divine-right absolutism, the Enlightenment advocates not the absence of power but its limitation by law. supplies the mechanism: for « power to check power », the legislative, executive and judicial must be separated and balanced. Liberty is not release from all authority but the security afforded by good laws. The century is nonetheless crossed by a tension: from to , several philosophes also look to the reforms of an enlightened despot, not always with a constitutional guarantee.
Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws, book XI · Voltaire, Philosophical Letters