Montesquieu's "The Spirit of Laws" contained his ideas of separation of powers for government to be divided into different branches to allocate the power to multiple areas in order to help minimize political tyranny or despotism. It included the idea of checks and balances, meaning that the different branches on government has the ability to limit the power of the other branches. The constitutions of the United States (and France) were based on Montesquieu's ideas. For example, James Madison (along with the other founding fathers) followed Montesquieu's step and established an independent executive, legislative and judiciary in the federal constitution. He also established a system of checks and balances that were based on Montesquieu's ideas and protected the separation of powers.
