Understanding why we have the laws we do is important in itself. However, it also serves
practical purposes. Most importantly, it will discourage misguided attempts at reform.
Montesquieu is not a utopian, either by temperament or conviction. He believes that to live under
a stable, non-despotic government that leaves its law-abiding citizens more or less free to live
their lives is a great good, and that no such government should be lightly tampered with. If we
understand our system of government, and the ways in which it is adapted to the conditions of
our country and its people, we will see that many of its apparently irrational features actually
make sense, and that to 'reform' these features would actually weaken our government. Thus, for
instance, one might think that a monarchical government would be strengthened by weakening
the nobility, thereby giving more power to the monarch. On Montesquieu's view, this is false: to
weaken those groups or institutions which check a monarch's power is to risk transforming
monarchy into despotism, a form of government that is both abhorrent and unstable.