sport of sacred spherical cows
French estates were clergy, titled nobility, and all other subjects. Each power base understood to have its own interests that—through petition and counsel—would press upon the sovereign to act in one manner or another.
In England, likewise, we would see lords spiritual, lords temporal, and commons. Note how formal incorporation of these estates within body of Parliament confounds their relation to the sovereign. Nonetheless, each represents distinct institutional interests beyond their seats.
sport of sacred spherical cows
Conceit of our schooling was that, in the U.S., the branches of government checked each the others, so these were the estates. The error here is that the branches of government are the sovereign. The sovereign cannot check itself—even if its components might be thought to check one another.
The estates must necessarily reflect institutional powers that, while they may play a role in government—as the estates of England would through Parliament—nonetheless are distinct from the sovereign itself.
sport of sacred spherical cows
As Usian children, we were taught that the three branches of Constitutional government were akin to historical three estates of the realm. This reflected a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of the estates.
The estates of the realm was a concept of institutional power centers within a society, where these institutional centers of power were understood to check the power of the sovereign. As each society is different, different countries had different numbers and constituencies of estates.
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