Abstract
Montesquieu’s central preoccupation was how to maintain liberty and avoid despotism. He was aware from his own experience that liberty was very fragile; Louis XIV had come close to extinguishing it, the Inquisition would do so if it could. Three-quarters of the globe, he thought, suffered from absolutist regimes. Only in Europe had a certain degree of liberty arisen and been preserved. But even here, there was no reason why it should not be extinguished, as in the late history of Rome. His fears are well summarized in the following passage.
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© 2000 Alan Macfarlane
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Macfarlane, A. (2000). Liberty and Despotism. In: The Riddle of the Modern World. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403913913_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403913913_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-98450-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-4039-1391-3
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