Sobre la División de Poderes: una reconsideración en el contexto actual

This article tries to highlight the transcendence of separation of powers in the framework of constitutionalism, taking as starting point the classic approach developed by the English philosopher John Locke, who published its Two Treatises of Government in 1689, at the beginning of the Glorious Revolution in England, and the French jurist Charles Louis de Secondat, baron of Montesquieu, author of L´Esprit des Lois in 1748. The seminal idea content in both works is, on short, that to guarantee democracy and liberty it is necessary the separation among the legislative, executive, and judiciary powers. But at present we find many difficulties to get the pure separation of powers, given the fact that in most parliamentary executive system there is not separation of persons between the legislature and the government, and even it may be said that the judiciary is not entirely independent because, for instance, as happens in United Kingdom, its head, the Lord Chancellor is both a member of the Cabinet and sits in the House of Lords. Then the question arises: Can we speak today of an effective separation of powers?