The [collection] of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands . . . may justly be [called] the very definition of tyranny. . . .
. . . it will be proper to investigate the sense in which the [protection] of liberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct.”
—James Madison, The Federalist Paper No. 47 (1788)
James Madison was the fourth president of the United States and one of the nation’s Founding Fathers.
Which Enlightenment thinker most likely influenced the ideas presented in this quotation by Madison? Explain what this thinker believed and how his ideas relate to the quotation.
17 answers