Gewaltenteilung
Like the other Federalist Papers, No. 47 advocated the ratification of the United States Constitution. In No. 47, Madison attempted to refute the citizens of the United States, and all those who opposed the constitution for fear that the separation of powers among the executive, judiciary, and legislature would not be defined enough in the constitution. Madison acknowledged that the topic of separation of powers was "one of the principal objections by the more respectable adversaries to the Constitution" and that "no political truth is certainly of greater intrinsic value." Madison acknowledged that "The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny." However, Madison explains his use of separation of powers utilizing a prodigious amount of support from the philosopher Montesquieu, whom Madison claims is to the British Constitution as Homer is to epic poetry. Montesquieu spent twenty years writing his best literary work, and one of the most detailed works in the history of law, the Spirit of Laws (1748). The publication focused on three topics: class of government, separation of powers, and political climate. Montesquieu aimed for the work to focus on the science of law, and thus a lack of spirituality occurred. He made up for this lacking by filling in historical information. He reasoned that history was the only true proof of cause and effect, as he viewed law as an "application of reason". Montesquieu claimed in Spirit of Laws that committing to liberty was equal to success. It is here that he focuses on the topic of separation of powers. Montesquieu believed that the only way to liberty was through the proper installment of separation of powers. He modeled this belief off of his love for the English government. Separation of powers was the equivalent to prosperity. Madison states Montesquieu's usage of the British government as the example of separation of powers in order to analyze Montesquieu's connections between the two. Madison quotes Montesquieu in Spirit of Laws as saying the British are the "mirror of political liberty". Thus, Montesquieu believed that the British form of separation of powers was of the utmost caliber.