Baron de Montesquieu is most closely associated with which of the following ideas

a. separation of powers

b. freedom of religion

c. the existence of natural rights

d. the social contract

Montesquieu was one of the great political theorists of the Enlightenment. Avidly curious and ironically funny, he built a naturalistic explanation of the numerous forms of administration, and of the reasons that created them what they were and that progressive or forced their growth. This theory of the separation of powers had a huge influence on liberal political theory, and on the framers of the constitution of the USA. So the answer is A.