Enlightenment(启蒙运动).docxVIP

Enlightenment : the Spirit of LawsWe all know that Enlightenment was a movement launched by a group of progressive intellectuals in the 18th century to fight against class inequality ,stagnation,prejudice and other survivals of feudalism.Beginning in France,it rapidly spread throughout the European world,and its ideas continue to be influential in modern times. Among those ideas,I’m profoundly impressed by the spirit of laws,which was put forward by Montesquieu,the initiator and the culminant figure of the decentralization theory in the West. Montesquieus fame rests above everything else on his political theory of the separation of powers.His principle of parity of three powers,which is embodied completely and developed creatively in the constitution of the United States ,makes American Government the most democratic and liberal government in the rule of law.And his thought of power balance is the origin of Sun Yat-sens five-power constitution.Most of all,his ideas make people have a much stronger sense of law.Each era finds its own “law”.In medieval Europe,people believe in the pope,the divine agent of God;In ancient China,emperors had boundless power ,everything they said becoming a legal basis.The key point is that those “laws” were unfair,which safeguarded openly the rulers privilege in order to maintain the order among social classes and actually trampled on justice.But for Montesquieu,all those who have powers tend to abuse them for their self - interest,so we need to restrict power with the right.I think it’s actually the beginning of “all are equal before the law”,which is taken for granted nowadays.Since then,we see a general improvement of citizens’ legal consciousness.While the privileged class stubbornly maintained its position,the French Revolution effected great changes in the law,encompassing the fall of the House of Bourbon;The Declaration of Independence was made in America in 1776,claiming that all men are created equal and we are endowed with ina