The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics (246 page)

 
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The doctrine that political power should be divided among several bodies as a precaution against tyranny. Opposed to absolute sovereignty of the Crown, Parliament, or any other body.
Separation of powers was a leading idea in medieval Europe under the name of the ‘two swords’ ( see
medieval political theory
). Most thinkers agreed that power should be shared between the State and the Church. But no convincing argument was produced for the supremacy of one over the other. Those who argued that the State was superior to the Church faced the fact that divine authority was supposed to be conferred on kings at their coronation, and that religious authorities claimed the power to excommunicate kings (as happened to King John of England). Those who argued that the Church was superior to the State had to explain away Jesus's command to ‘Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's’. Thus there was
de facto
separation of powers in medieval Europe.
The idea revived in the seventeenth century in response to renewed claims of divine right and absolute sovereignty ( see
Filmer
;
Hobbes
).
Locke
distinguished the executive, legislative, and federative (relating to foreign affairs) powers, although he did not intend them to be regarded as separate. He had in mind the British arrangement where the
executive
was (at least partly) drawn from the
legislature
and (at least in relation to finance) answerable to it.
Montesquieu
developed this into a full-blown theory of the separation of the legislative, executive, and judicial powers (based, it is often said, on a misreading of contemporary British politics). From here it passed to the US Constitution and its justification in the
Federalist Papers
. The checks and balances of US government involve both the vertical separation of powers among the executive (the Presidency), the legislature (the two houses of
Congress
, themselves arranged to check and balance one another), and the judiciary (the federal courts) and a horizontal separation between the federal government and the states.
Defenders of separation of powers insist that it is needed against tyranny, including the
tyranny
of the majority. Its opponents argue that sovereignty must lie somewhere, and that it is better, and arguably more democratic, to ensure that it always lies with the same body (such as Parliament).

 
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Sexism has been described as the practice of domination of women. It is a practice that is supported in many different ways that are critical to our socialization into our sex roles, and therefore makes this domination acceptable in society—through language, visual association, media representation, and stereotyping, especially on the basis of the mothering/caring role of women. Sexism is important also because all women experience it in different ways, depending upon their social and economic situation—within the family and in jobs—and limit the ways in which women seek to actualize their potential.
SR 

 
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The UK shadow cabinet is the front bench of the official parliamentary opposition party. It seeks to present itself as an alternative government for the next general election. It grew out of the practice that developed in the late nineteenth century of the ex-cabinet continuing to meet after election defeat in order to lead the opposition against the new cabinet. Since the 1950s it has become a key dimension of the formalized process of parliamentary adversarial politics. The Labour shadow cabinet is based on members elected by the parliamentary Labour Party, whilst a Conservative shadow cabinet would be appointed by the party leader.
JBr