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Faulty Foundings and Failed Reformers in Machiavelli's Florentine Histories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

JOHN P. MCCORMICK
JOHN P. MCCORMICK*
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
*
John P. McCormick is Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago, 5828 So. University Ave., Chicago, IL 60637 ([email protected]).
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Abstract

T his article argues against prevailing scholarly trends that the Florentine Histories continues to delineate the ways through which Niccolò Machiavelli, in The Prince and the Discourses, advised potential founders or reformers to exploit, for their own benefit and that of their patria, the inevitable social conflicts between elites and the people that arise in all polities. Machiavelli demonstrates that, in particular, Giano della Bella and Michele di Lando could and should have attempted to imitate exemplary ancient founders and reformers whom he praises in previous works, especially Moses, Romulus, and Brutus. Machiavelli implicitly criticizes Giano and Michele for failing to spiritedly invigorate new laws with necessary and salutary violence; for neglecting to effectively manage the “envy” of rival peers; for not resisting the allure of “middle ways” between difficult political choices; and for failing to militarily organize or mobilize the entirety of Florence's common people.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 111 , Issue 1 , February 2017 , pp. 204 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2017 

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Footnotes

Paper presented during 2015–6 at the University of Toronto, the Renaissance Studies Association, Boston, and Northwestern University. I thank the participants on those occasions for invaluable comments and criticisms, especially Ryan Balot, Ronnie Beiner, Mary Dietz, Emre Gercek, Mark Jurdjevic, Boris Litvin, and Mauricio Suchowlansky. I am also indebted to the indispensable feedback of Yuna Blajer, Steven Klein, Amanda Maher, and Natasha Piano, as well as to the judicious editorial stewardship of Steven Forde, and the perspicacious commentary of four anonymous reviewers for APSR.

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