overthrowing the constitutional balance indicates the problem in a horizontal system of divided power
that offers no countervailing subordinate powers to balance that of the national government. The
tendency for parliamentary government to collapse administration and constitution, or normal statute and
fundamental law is exacerbated dramatically when the parliamentary balance is itself attenuated. Despite
the majesty of its exquisite separation of powers and the many factors supporting liberty in its customs,
mores and laws, Montesquieu detects that there is something rotten in the state of England.
III. The Historical Roots of the British Constitution
Montesquieu’s accounts of the British government and society in 11.6 and 19.27 reveal his
assessment of both the achievements and the defects of the British model of parliamentary sovereignty.
These do not, however, on their own explain the historical developments that produced the separation of
powers or the highly centralized authority of parliament. For this we must turn to Montesquieu’s
treatment of the major historical developments in English political experience scattered throughout the
Spirit of the Laws and his other works. Montesquieu’s observation that balanced constitutions is rarely
produced by chance or prudence (5.14.63) practically invites us to search for the roots of British
constitutionalism. From whence did this remarkable government spring, and what can be learned about
the art of legislation from its provenance?
It is by no means a simple task Montesquieu sets before us. While as a general principle he
considers a nation’s history as an important element in its political formation, Montesquieu offers no
systematic treatment of English history in the Spirit of the Laws. Strikingly he provides much less
analysis in regard to English history than he does with respect to ancient Rome or his own native France,
arguably the two other most prominent nations in the work. What can be said, however, is that
Montesquieu offers a few underlying general historical causes that shaped the direction British
government and society has taken (Carrithers 1986: 65). The fundamental historical experience in
modern Britain has been, in his view, the gradual dismantling of the feudal model of Gothic
constitutionalism and its replacement with a system of parliamentary sovereignty. The parliamentary
separation of powers emerged as an institutional arrangement of balanced authority transposed in
19
Convention