montesquieu's philosophy was what might be called a politics in place. he believed the right regime for any people was very much determined by their culture, religion, economy, environment all of those factors mattered to what kind of government would actually succeed in that context. >> exactly. >> montesquieu, you may know, was the think are most slighted by the founding fathers so i would imagine wilson probably did know something about montesquieu who by the way was the source of the information-- inspiration for checks and balances and separation of powers in the us constitution. that i did is actually at the core of what you are talking about it seems to me. >> it is at the core and he did not read montesquieu carefully. he knew of course about it, i mean, it would be impossible for him not to know about it. of the spirit of the laws and that kind of thing. like everyone there was enormous spectrum, one of the greatest thinkers. essentially, he didn't like the french revolution, so he avoided the french. the problem with the french quiz-- illustrat