Since Antiquity, several philosophers and thinkers have been involved in the forms of organization of political power. Many of these were concerned with the investigation of a form of balance in which power was not maintained in the hands of a single person or institution. Even at that time, the implications of a government with tyrannical or authoritarian features preoccupied the minds of those who turned their attention to the political terrain.
Between the 17th and 18th centuries, time of preparation and development of the Enlightenment movement, theorist John Locke (1632 – 1704) pointed to the need for a division of political power. Living in the middle of Modern Europe, this thinker was under the rule of the absolutist government. In such a context, we observe the figure of a king capable of transforming his will into law and sustaining their validity through religious justifications.
A few decades later, Charles de Montesquieu (1689 – 1755) looked to the legacy of his British predecessor and the Greek philosopher Aristotle to create the work “
Even proposing a division between powers, Montesquieu points out that each of these should balance between autonomy and intervention in other powers. In this way, each power could not be disrespected in the functions it should fulfill. At the same time, when one of them proved excessively authoritarian or extrapolated their designations, the other powers would have the right to intervene against such disharmonious situation.
In this system we observe the existence of the following powers: the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch and the Judiciary Branch. O Executive power it would have the function of observing the demands of the public sphere and ensuring the appropriate means so that the needs of the community are met within what is determined by law. Thus, even having several administrative attributions in their wake, the members of the executive cannot go beyond the limits of the laws created.
In turn, the Legislative power its function is to bring together the political representatives who establish the creation of new laws. In this way, when elected by the citizens, the members of the legislature become spokespersons for the concerns and interests of the population as a whole. In addition to this task, the members of the legislature have devices through which they can monitor the executive's compliance with laws. Therefore, we see that the “legislators” monitor the actions of the “executors”.
In several situations, we can see that the mere presence of the law is not enough for the boundaries between lawful and unlawful to be clearly defined. On such occasions, members of the Judicial power their function is to judge, based on legal principles, how an issue or problem is resolved. In the figure of judges, prosecutors and lawyers, the judiciary ensures that concrete everyday issues are resolved in light of the law.
By Rainer Sousa
Master in History