Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/63

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HERE are three species of government, republican, monarchical, and despotic. In order to discover their nature, it is sufficient to recollect the common notion, which supposes three definitions, or rather three facts: that a republican government is that in which the body, or only a part of the people, is possessed of the supreme power: Monarchy, that in which a single person governs by fixt and established laws: a despotic government, that in which a single person directs every thing by his own will and caprice.

This is what I call the nature of each government; we must examine now which are those laws that follow this nature directly, and consequently are the first fundamental laws.

HEN the body of the people in a republic are possessed of the supreme power, this is called a democracy. When the supreme power Rh