Checks and balances—Where did they come from?

Monarchs who recognize no limits on their power and do not understand that even a monarch must be subject to the law forfeit their legitimacy. Locke’s view of the state then requires that the executive power must not be absolute, but must be checked by an independent judiciary and a legislature that makes the laws. It is easy to see the influence of Locke on the American Declaration of Independence as well as the Constitution.—Evans, A History of Western Philosophy, 323–24