公众福利与贵族特权——试析洛克与孟德斯鸠的三权分立学说之差异

Public Welfare and Noblemen’s Privilege:A Tentative Study of the Differences in Montesquieu's Separation of Powers and Locke’s

洛克是近代自然法学派中第一个明确提出三权分立思想的人,而孟德斯鸠则在洛克分权思想的基础上,进一步完善了立法、行政、司法三权分立和相互制衡的政治学说。虽然二者在理论上具有一脉相承的关系,但是他们在各自的分权学说中所表现出来的思想倾向却是不尽相同的。前者侧重于以财产权利为重心的公众福利,而后者侧重于以贵族特权为前提的政治自由。与洛克相比,虽然孟德斯鸠的三权分立理论在形式上更加完善,但是在思想内涵上,还是洛克的分权学说对西方现代民主政治产生的影响更大。

Among the early modern school of natural law, John Locke was the first to put forward the theory of the separation of powers. Baron de Montesquieu developed Locke's theory and further improved the theory of the separation of legislature, executive, and judiciary and their mutual restraints. Though the two theories are related to each other, they have different ideological trends. The former stresses the public welfare with property right as the center while the latter emphasizes the political freedom with the noblemen’s privilege as the precondition. Comparatively, though Montesquieu's theory of the separation of powers is better in form, Locke’s separation of powers has exerted a greater influence on the modern democratic politics of the West.