Abstract
Past and future have in common that the latter is as uncertain as the former. Indeed, there is no such thing as malleable as human memory. More than how things really were, one often only retains what he wanted to. The problem is that as a consequence there is sometimes a certain discrepancy between what I think I know and what I really know. For some authors, this has been a real issue. It is after all easy to credit an idea to someone when already centuries have passed. That has been the case for the French philosopher Charles-Louis de Secondat, also known as Montesquieu.
Montesquieu is mostly well known for two of his works: the "Lettres Persanes" and "L'esprit des Lois", in which he developed the famous idea of the separation of powers. Admittedly, Montesquieu's paternity on the theory is indisputable. He may not have been the first to put it into words, with Aristotle having basically stated the same idea two thousands years earlier, but he is the one who embodied the theory in a constitutional government guaranteeing the rights of the individuals. But if the concepts of Montesquieu have been perfectly understood by the American founders, it is mostly not the case nowadays.
The twentieth century has denatured the theory of the separation of powers, the ideas of the author having been greatly misunderstood. Indeed, at some point, Montesquieu had been classified as the father of modern constitutionalism, arguing for a hermetic division of powers. He was nearly classified as a defender of democracy in public law textbooks. Even more, authors have sometimes qualified Montesquieu as idealist, his so-called theory being unrealistic.
