question_answer

Lord Acton said, “"Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."” The meaning and need of the doctrine of separation of power lies in Lord Acton’s statement. The State has the power to affect the life of citizens. If the power of the State is not checked it may lead to abuse of power. The abuse of power may be in the form of overusing it or even under-using it. Power is vested in the State so that it may use it as and when it is required to be used. To prevent such abuse of power it is ensured that the power is not concentrated in the hands of one person/branch of government. Thus, the Constitution divides powers between Legislature, Executive and Judiciary. Each organ of the State is expected to perform within its constitutionally prescribed limits. Thus, Legislature cannot interpret its own laws and Judiciary cannot pass enactments, nor can it even ask the Legislature to make laws. No one person can hold more than one office of the government. The judge of a court cannot be Member of Parliament simultaneously. Or, an administrative officer (for example. Commissioner of Police) cannot be a judicial officer at the same time. Different aspects of governance should be in hands of different persons who should work independent and without influence of others.

John Locke (1632-1704), in his Second Treatise of Government, wrote:

It may be too great a temptation for the human frailty, apt to grasp at powers, for the same persons who have power of making laws, to have also in their hands the power to execute them, whereby they may exempt themselves from the law, both in its making and execution to their own private advantage.

II. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND ORIGIN

In his book Politics, Aristotle first perceived and saw that there is a specialisation of function in each Constitution. He mentioned three organs of the government, namely, Deliberative, Executive and Judiciary. Later, Roman writers like Cicero and Polybius praised the Republican Constitution of Rome because they discovered a perfect balance between the Senate, Consuls and Tribunes. According to John Locke, the government should be limited, the limit being set by the consent of the people. He believed that the federative power of the State related to the conduct of foreign affairs, and the federative powers may be combined with executive powers.

But he opposed the concentration of executive and legislative powers in the same hands. Calvin, Bodin and Marsilius of Padua also supported the idea of separation of powers. All the theories on the principle of separation of powers were based on an ideal that the freedom of the people should be safeguarded from the tyrannical and despotic rulers. The freedoms of people shall be under threat when all the powers are vested and exercised by the very same persons.

Who among the following supported the idea of separation of powers?

A) Calvin

B) Bodin

C) Marsilius

D) All the above