Evaluation of the Doctrine of Separation of Powers

A rule that no single person should be judge, lawmaker and enforcer in one sounds obviously correct — until you ask how a government is meant to actually run three separate machines without any of them talking to each other. This topic is where you step back from Montesquieu's theory and ask what it is worth, and what it costs.

In two minutes

Separation of Powers has real merits — it prevents concentration of power and protects liberty — but it is criticised as impossible to apply in pure form, capable of causing deadlock, and blind to how modern government actually functions.

The rest of this chapter

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