Podział władzy podziałem suwerenności. Rozumienie zasady suwerenności ludu i zasady podziału władzy od XVII do XIX w.

The aim of the article is to analyse a relation between the principle of separation of powers and the idea of sovereignty of people from the 17th to the 19th century. The research examines conceptions of the separation of powers formulated by most significant thinkers for the development of this idea (John Locke, David Hume, Montesquieu, and Benjamin Constant). Moreover, some remarks referring to the separation of powers that are present in a thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Alexis de Tocqueville are taken into account, too. The article shows that for the majority of researched thinkers the idea of separation of powers is, more or less, connected with a division of sovereignty. It means that it is possible to fully realize an actual separation of powers only in a state where at least legislative and executive powers are vested in separate institutions that have radical different kind of legitimization, for instance a legislative body is elected by people, but the executive is exercised by a hereditary king. Under such circumstances various powers are essentially separated and independent from each other. All in all, the separation of powers in its original meaning has in principle only moderate democratic character and is not fully applicable in democracy.