A government acting as an executive, and at the
same time laying down the law as the legislative power, would be a
despotic government, and would have to be contradistinguished from a
patriotic government. A patriotic government, again, is to be
distinguished from a paternal government (regimen paternale) which
is the most despotic government of all, the citizens being dealt
with by it as mere children. A patriotic government, however, is one
in which the state, while dealing with the subjects as if they were
members of a family, still treats them likewise as citizens, and
according to laws that recognize their independence, each individual
possessing himself and not being dependent on the absolute will of
another beside him or above him.
2. The legislative authority ought not at the same time to be the
executive or governor; for the governor, as administrator, should
stand under the authority of the law, and is bound by it under the
supreme control of the legislator. The legislative authority may
therefore deprive the governor of his power, depose him, or reform his
administration, but not punish him. This is the proper and only
meaning of the common saying in England, "The King- as the supreme
executive power- can do no wrong." For any such application of
punishment would necessarily be an act of that very executive power to
which the supreme right to compel according to law pertains, and which
would itself be thus subjected to coercion; which is
self-contradictory.
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