The Spirit of Laws, Book XI - Of The Laws Which Establish Political Liberty With Regard To The Constitution

Liberty, in the realm of government, is the ability to properly pursue the ends of government.  This means setting up systems that inherently prevent the abuse of power.  Most governments are set up for the pursuit of some external goal, that is, external to the government itself.  But the English system is designed for the internal goal of maintaining political liberty-- of sustaining itself.  Any system looking to do this must be moderate in its actions.

Features of the English system, or any system looking to preserve itself:

Separation of power between legislative, executive, and judicial-- to prevent one body or person from amassing self-serving power.

Judicial appointees coming from the common population [jury trial].

Legislative representatives chosen from the best among the people-- possibly even from the nobility.  Or perhaps a combination [bicameral legislature].

Universal suffrage.

Active, nimble, and unitary executive, but one with the legislative power only to reject laws-- and ability of the legislature to override vetoes.

Regular legislative sessions.

Impeachment trials.

Slow-moving government overall-- so that when it does move, it moves in concert.

Legislative taxing power.  Executive control of the military.

Successful monarchies, too, must be organized by a proper division of power.  Much of the political turmoil in ancient history is due to improper, and thus unstable, divisions of power, that had to be corrected again and again.  The Greeks invested too much judicial power in their kings, but not the legislative power for them to be able to correct the problem themselves.  Eventually the entire system gave way.

[Looooooong discussion of the political developments among the Romans.  Highlights-- often the fairest systems arose in times of transition, but were superseded by the new changes.  Initial discussion is of the division between legislative senate and executive king, governor, or appointed dictator.  Later discussion of the organization of the judiciary.  Distinction between discovery of fact and discovery of law-- roles played by different bodies.  Peaceable systems in conquered lands-- often more stable.  Note: a fair separation of powers upholding a stable government that itself exemplifies "liberty" does not guarantee that the people themselves will experience anything resembling personal "liberty".  That's for a later chapter.]

Ends by saying that anyone wanting to explore the development of liberty in any other historical mode of government will have to do the work themselves.  He's done.

----------------------

Ah, the good stuff.  It's pretty remarkable how much of this was incorporated, and is still incorporated, in the American system at the constitutional level.  It may have a been a good idea to read this thing after all.