Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T12:51:38.261Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Machiavelli's Paradox: Trapping or Teaching the Prince

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

John Langton  and
Mary G. Dietz
John Langton
Affiliation:
Westminster College
Mary G. Dietz
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In The Discourses Machiavelli extolled the virtues of republican government, yet in The Prince he advised the ruler on how to perpetuate autocratic rule. What accounts for this paradox? Mary Dietz argues that Machiavelli sought to deceive the prince, trapping him into actions that would destroy his rule. John Langton contends, in contrast, that Machiavelli was seeking to teach the prince how to govern so that the autocratic state could evolve into a republic.

Type
Controversies
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 81 , Issue 4 , December 1987 , pp. 1277 - 1288
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baron, Hans. 1961. Machiavelli: The Republican Citizen and the Author of The Prince. English Historical Review 299:217–53.Google Scholar
Brucker, Gene. 1969. Renaissance Florence. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
D'Amico, Jack. 1984. Order from Disorder: Machiavelli on “Cyclicity.” Canadian Journal of Italian Studies 7:132–47.Google Scholar
Dietz, Mary G. 1986. Trapping the Prince: Machiavelli and the Politics of Deception. American Political Science Review 80:777–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hale, John Rigby. 1961. Machiavelli and the Renaissance. London: English University Press.Google Scholar
Hale, John Rigby. 1977. Florence and the Medici. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Machiavelli, Niccolò. 1950. The Prince and the Discourses. Trans. Ricci, Luigi and Detmold, Christian. New York: Modern Library.Google Scholar
Najemy, John. 1982. Machiavelli and the Medici: The Lessons of Florentine History. Renaissance Quarterly 35:551–76.Google Scholar
Pansini, Anthony. 1969. Niccolo Machiavelli and the United States of America. Greenvale, NY: Greenvale.Google Scholar
Plumb, John H. 1961. The Italian Renaissance. New York: American Heritage.Google Scholar
Pocock, John G. A. 1975. The Machiavellian Moment. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Rubinstein, Nicolai. 1968. Constitutionalism and Medici Ascendency. In Florentine Studies, ed. author. London: Farber & Farber.Google Scholar
Schevill, Ferdinand. 1936. History of Florence from the Founding of the City through the Renaissance. New York: Ungar.Google Scholar
Skinner, Quentin. 1978. The Foundations of Modern Political Thought. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.