The Climate of Reason
Montesquieu presented his political theories more systematically in The Spirit of the Laws, which soberly explains differences among republics, monarchies, and despotic regimes, relates these to the forms of male tyranny over women, and prescribes appropriate designs for government.
He was convinced that climate largely determined the relative strength of the passions. Men living in colder climes (or descended, like the French, from men of the north) were bolder, braver, more patient, and more reasonable than those living in the south. 2'lThe Spirit of the Laws would have been more aptly named The Spirit of the North. It puts Montesquieu’s condescending image of the Persian seraglio in context:If we draw near the south, we fancy ourselves entirely removed from the verge of morality; here the strongest passions are productive of all manner of crimes, each man endeavoring, let the means be what they will, to indulge his inordinate desires.27
The virtually inevitable results, he explained, were despotism, polygamy, and domestic slavery. In the North, on the other hand, Montesquieu observed republics, monogamy, and greater equality in marriage. There is less need to control and isolate northern women in seraglios, because their passions are subdued.28
That Montesquieu deprecated Asians, Africans, and Peruvians alike is less surprising than his lack of concern for religious apostasy. He suggested that the forms of government they developed were an appropriate response to local conditions, and that efforts to change them might therefore be futile. Christians should not try to impose monogamy on Asians, because it was not suited to their circumstances. At the same time, he felt compelled to deplore polygamy because it lowered fertility and could lead to homosexuality, the ‘‘passion which nature disallows.’’29
Catholic doctrine based on Augustine and Aquinas emphasized women’s greater susceptibility to passion; Montesquieu displaced this susceptibility onto the national and racial ‘‘other’’. Not surprisingly, this led to an assessment of European female character that was more generous than that of many of his predecessors.
How gallant to insist that the most virtuous countries are those who treat their women the best. His gallantry did not extend, however, to advocacy on their behalf.30 Adopting his character Uzbek’s stance, he pronounced it ‘‘contrary to reason and nature that women should reign in families.’’31 He noted that women occasionally became queens in other countries, but did not criticize the Salic law that explicitly denied them that right in France.Montesquieu's dislike of the passions helps explain his affection for the spirit of commerce based on ‘‘frugality, economy, moderation, labor, prudence, tranquility, order, and rule.''32 But the motivating force he praised, unlike Weber's spirit of capitalism, was one that he believed would actually be destroyed by excessive wealth. Only a passionate, primitive society would encourage individuals to pursue their own self-interest without regard for others. The republic, and along with it the successful conduct of commerce, depends on civic virtue. Hence the need, argued Montesquieu, to eliminate slavery and to tax the rich to help support the poor.33 The Spirit of the Laws praises the state, not the market.34 The state represents an abstract embodiment of the procreative forces of the father, and its indebted citizens owe it full allegiance.35 Civic virtue is a responsibility, and the political scientist's task is to design the institutions that can reinforce it. Montesquieu's prescription of checks and balances in government later shaped the Constitution of the United States. His prescriptions for ending slavery and gross inequalities of wealth proved far less influential.