XI.7 On the monarchies we know
The monarchies we know do not, like the one we have been discussing, have freedom as their direct object ; they aim only at the glory of the citizens, the state, and the prince. But from that glory there results a spirit of freedom which can achieve equally great things in those states, and perhaps contribute as much to their welfare, as freedom itself.
There the three powers are not distributed and melded on the model of the constitution we have been describing ; each has a particular distribution in terms of which they more or less approximate political freedom ; and if they did not approximate it, the monarchy would degenerate into despotism.