The plebe in the Florentine Histories: Machiavelli’s notion of humours revisited

According to recent scholarship, the Florentine Histories expresses Machiavelli’s growing scepticism toward the popolo. This more elitist ‘late Machiavelli’, however, is an illusion. I show that the illusion arose from (1) the scholarly oversight of Machiavelli’s criticism of the popolo in his early work, Discourses, and (2) the failure to notice his new terminological distinction between the popolo and the plebe in the Florentine Histories. Machiavelli never was a whole-hearted defender of the popolo in the first place, for his consistent commitment was to preserve the balance between the popolo and the grandi. Nor was he unusually critical of the popolo in his later work, Florentine Histories: he directs his harshest criticism to the lower-class plebe and not to the middle-class popolo.     

French economists and Bernese agrarians: The marquis de Mirabeau and the economic society of Berne

Physiocracy is still sometimes seen as an oddly archaic programme of agricultural development. The aim of this paper is to show that one of the Physiocrats’ prime concerns was to take the subject of agriculture out of international relations. The fiscal regime that was central to Physiocracy was designed to make every large territorial state self-sufficient and, by doing so, to break the connection between modern great power politics, the international division of labour, and the politics of necessity. From this perspective, the memorandum that Victor Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau, sent to the Berne Economic Society in 1759, contains an early indication of what, had the Physiocratic programme ever been implemented in full, a world reformed on Physiocratic lines might have looked like.     

Pocock,Machiavelli and Political Contingency in Foreign Affairs: Republican Existentialism Outside (and Within) the City

SUMMARY

In this essay, inspired by J.G.A. Pocock's appropriation of Machiavelli's theory of political contingency, and building upon my previous engagements with Pocock's ‘republican existentialism’, I focus on the role played by ‘accidents’ in Machiavelli's analysis of war and foreign affairs within The Prince and the Discourses. In so doing, I consider the following issues: the ways through which a potential imperial hegemon might consolidate control over nearby lesser powers—and, conversely, how such less powerful polities might resist imperial encroachments on their autonomy; the contrasting military modes and orders characteristic of ancient and modern republics; and the extent to which Machiavelli actually thought that accidents in foreign affairs were ever truly ‘accidental’ in light of his determinations concerning well- versus badly ordered domestic institutions.     

The Concept of Corruption in J.G.A. Pocock's The Machiavellian Moment

SUMMARY

In the scholarship on the concept of political corruption, one frequently encounters the lamentation that the manner in which the concept is deployed in liberal modernity is insufficiently attuned to the richer sense in which the term was employed in the ‘civic humanist’ tradition. In these lamentations, the usual point of reference is J.G.A. Pocock's The Machiavellian Moment, a work that made corruption the central term of art in a political language stretching from the Renaissance to the eighteenth century and beyond. Certainly there is something quite attractive today about the ‘Machiavellian’ inflection of the term—our era is replete with the very things the protagonists of Pocock's story decried: debt, dependency, oligarchy, standing armies and the diminution of civic duties. But to what extent is Pocock's classic text a reliable guide for those studying the concept of corruption? This article suggests that Pocock uses the term in an excessively capacious manner, which both weakens his book's utility for understanding eighteenth-century political thought and undermines its power as a foundation for political critique by civic-minded anti-corruption reformers.     

Thomas Fitzherbert's reason of state

Thomas Fitzherbert's two-part Treatise concerning Policy and Religion (1606, 1610) was a rebuttal of unidentified Machiavellians, statists or politikes and their politics and policies. The work was apparently still well-regarded in the following century. Fitzherbert's objections to ‘statism’ were principally religious, and he himself thought the providentialist case against it unanswerable. But for those who did not share his convictions, he attempted to undermine Machiavellism on its own ground. Like both ‘Machiavellians’ and their opponents, he argued by inference from historical examples, but with a particularly copious knowledge of historians ancient, medieval and modern to draw on. Equally, however, he deployed the principles of speculative (principally Aristotelian) ‘political science,’ as well as theology and jurisprudence, to demonstrate that the kind of knowledge that Machiavellians required to guarantee the success of their ‘reason of state’ policies was simply unobtainable. A particularly striking strategy (perhaps modelled on that of his mentor and friend Robert Persons) was Fitzherbert's attempt to demonstrate, on the Machiavellians’ own premises, that they advocated policies which were very likely to fail, and would be visited with divine punishments sooner as well as later, whereas policies that were compatible with faith and morals were also much more likely to succeed, even judged in purely human and ‘statist’ terms.     

A tribune named Niccolò: Petrarchan revolutionaries and humanist failures in Machiavelli’s Florentine Histories

Given Machiavelli’s fascination with ancient Rome’s plebeian tribunate, it is not surprising that he would take an interest in Cola di Rienzo, the Roman who declared himself Tribune of the Plebs in 1347. However, Cola appears just once in Machiavelli’s corpus, in a single short and enigmatic chapter in the Florentine Histories. This paper argues that Machiavelli nevertheless quietly elaborates on Cola’s legacy later in his Histories, when he introduces Stefano Porcari, another ‘Roman citizen’ whose reform efforts fail catastrophically. Though Machiavelli never explicitly criticizes Cola, he does blame Porcari for exercising poor judgement. This blame, importantly, is entwined with Machiavelli’s allusions to the humanist writings of Francesco Petrarch. By placing these accounts of Cola and Porcari side by side, this paper aims to reveal the Florentine Histories’ complicated relationship with Petrarch, Italy’s most famous humanist. The web of cross-references among Cola, Porcari and Machiavelli himself indicates the latter’s vexation with the sort of rhetorical idealism that Petrarch’s famous endorsement of Cola’s revolution came to represent.     

Machiavelli's scientific method: a common understanding of his novelty in the sixteenth century

This paper argues that Machiavelli's method, his inductive and comparative use of history and experience for political analysis, and his fashioning of historical-political analysis as ‘science’, played an important and still unrecognised role in his reception in the sixteenth century. It makes the case that Machiavelli's inductive reasoning and stress on historia and experientia offered a model for scientific method that open-minded sixteenth-century scholars, eager to understand, organise and augment human knowledge (scientia), could fit to their own epistemology. By focusing on the question of method—a crucial issue for sixteenth-century contemporaries—the paper offers more than a key to the understanding of Machiavelli's positive reception. It also helps in apprehending the crucial importance of Lucretius to Machiavelli's scholarship; the role of the late Renaissance fascination with historia in his reception; and the breadth of appropriation of his method exactly in the decades when anti-Machiavellianism became official politics all over Europe. These claims are sustained through the cases of Machiavelli's early translators and promulgators; the French legal humanists and historiographers; the Swiss, Italian and French scholars engaging with medicine, Paracelsism and astronomy; the authors of political maxims from all over Europe; and finally Francis Bacon.     

Feature Reviews

Abstract

Rosanvallon, Pierre; trans. Barbara Harshav The New Social Question: Rethinking the Welfare State Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 139 pp. + xii. $22.95, ISBN 0-691-01640-2. Publication Date: 2000

UNITED STATES. Politics and Public Policy: Perry, Michael J. We the People: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Supreme Court. New York: Oxford University Press. 288 pp., $35.00, ISBN 0-19-512362-X

Bamberger, Michael A. Reckless Legislation: How Lawmakers Ignore the Constitution. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 233 pp., $32.00, ISBN 0-8135-2732-5 Publication Date: January 2000

Wolbrecht, Christina. The Politics of Women's Rights. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 241 pp., $55.00 cloth, $17.95 paper ISBN 0-691-04856-8 cloth ISBN 0-691-04857-6 paper Publication Date: September 2000

Ledeen, Michael A. Tocqueville on American Character. New York: St. Martin's Press. 229 pp., $23.95, ISBN 0-312-25231-5 Publication Date: July 2000

Shaiko, Ronald G. Voices and Echoes for the Environment: Public Interest Representation in the 1990s and Beyond. New York: Columbia University Press. 300 pp., $49.50 cloth, $21.00 paper ISBN 0-231-11354-4 cloth ISBN 0-231-11355-2 paper Publication Date: January 1999

Burke, Sheila; Eric R. Kingson; and Uwe E. Reinhardt, eds. Social Security and Medicare: Individual versus Collective Risk and Responsibility. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press. 218 pp., $20.95 paper ISBN 0-8157-1283-9 paper Publication Date: April 2000

Karabell, Zachary. The Last Campaign: How Harry Truman Won the 1948 Election. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 308 pp., $27.50, ISBN 0-375-40086-9 Publication Date: April 2000

Pratt, Richard C., with Zachary Smith. Hawai'i Politics and Government: An American State in a Pacific World. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 310 pp., $57.50 cloth, $27.50 paper ISBN 0-8032-3724-3 cloth ISBN 0-8032-8750-X paper Publication Date: February 2000

Thurber, James A.; Candice J. Nelson; and David A. Dulio, eds. Crowded Airwaves: Campaign Advertising in Elections. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press. 187 pp., $39.95 cloth, $16.95 paper ISBN 0-8157-8456-2 cloth ISBN 0-8157-8455-4 paper Publication Date: July 2000

Stephenson, Donald Grier, Jr. Campaigns and the Court: The U.S. Supreme Court in Presidential Elections. New York: Columbia University Press. 363 pp., $49.50 cloth, $19.50 paper ISBN 0-231-10034-5 cloth ISBN 0-231-10035-3 paper Publication Date: May 1999

Craycraft, Kenneth R. The American Myth of Religious Freedom. Dallas, TX: Spence Publishing Company. 202 pp., $27.95, ISBN 1-890626-13-9 Publication Date: May 1999

Lammers, William W., and Michael A. Genovese. The Presidency and Domestic Policy: Comparing Leadership Styles, FDR to Clinton. Washington, DC: CQ Press. 383 pp., $38.95 cloth, $28.95 paper ISBN 1-56802-125-9 cloth ISBN 1-56802-124-0 paper Publication Date: 2000

Dollinger, Marc. Quest for Inclusion: Jews and Liberalism in Modern America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 288 pp., $35.00, ISBN 0-691-00509-5 Publication Date: July 2000

Spitzer, Robert J., ed. Politics and Constitutionalism: The Louis Fisher Connection. Albany: SUNY Press. 285 pp., $57.59 cloth, $18.95 paper ISBN 0-7914-4639-5 cloth ISBN 0-7914-4640-9 paper Publication Date: June 2000

Powe, Lucas A., Jr. The Warren Court and American Politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press/Belknap Press. 566 pp., $35.00, ISBN 0-674-00095-1 Publication Date: March 2000

Popkin, William D. Statutes in Court: The History and Theory of Statutory Interpretation. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 340 pp., $54.95, ISBN 0-8223-2328-1 Publication Date: September 1999

UNITED STATES. Foreign Policy and National Security: Haass, Richard N., and Meghan L. O'Sullivan, eds. Honey and Vinegar: Incentives, Sanctions, and Foreign Policy. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press. 212 pp., $39.95 cloth, $16.95 paper ISBN 0-8157-3356-9 cloth ISBN 0-0157-3355-0 paper Publication Date: September 2000

O'Hanlon, Michael. Technological Change and the Future of Warfare. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press. 208 pp., $42.95 cloth, $17.05 paper ISBN 0-8157-6440-5 cloth ISBN 0-8157-6439-1 paper Publication Date: 2000

Deitchman, Seymour J. On Being a Superpower: And Not Knowing What to Do about It. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. 350 pp., $32.00, ISBN 0-8133-6775-1 Publication Date: February 2000

CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA: Frieden, Jeffrey; Manuel Pastor Jr.; and Michael Tornz, eds. Modern Political Economy and Latin America: Theory and Policy. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. 348 pp., $65.00 cloth, $24.00 paper ISBN 0-8133-2417-3 cloth ISBN 0-8133-2418-1 paper Publication Date: May 2000

Crisp, Brian F. Democratic Institutional Design: The Powers and Incentives of Venezuelan Politicians and Interest Groups. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 274 pp., $55.00, ISBN 0-8047-3370-0 cloth Publication Date: July 2000

López-Alves, Fernando. State Formation and Democracy in Latin America, 1810-1900. Durham, NC; Duke University Press. 295 pp., $49.45 cloth, $17.95 paper ISBN 0-8223-2450-4 cloth ISBN 0-8223-2474-1 paper Publication Date: March 2000

EUROPE/COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES: Mayer, Arno J. The Furies: Violence and Terror in the French and Russian Revolutions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 705 pp., $35.00, ISBN 0-691-04897-5 Publication Date: May 2000

Deák, Istvan; Jan T. Gross; and Tony Judt, eds. The Politics of Retribution in Europe: World War II and Its Aftermath. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 337 pp. + xii, $65.00 cloth, $19.95 paper ISBN 0-691-00953-8 cloth ISBN 0-691-00954-6 paper Publication Date: May 2000

Tiersky, Ronald. Europe Today: National Politics, European Integration, and European Security. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield 492 pp. + x, $25.95 paper ISBN 0-8476-8591-8 paper Publication Date: 1999

AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST: Cobban, Helena. The Israeli-Syrian Peace Talks: 1991-1996 and Beyond. Washington, DC: U.S. Institute of Peace Press. 235 pp., + xiii, $19.95 paper ISBN 1-878379-98-4 paper Publication Date: December 1999

Hartman, David. Israelis and the Jewish Tradition: An Ancient People Debating Its Future. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 192 pp., $18.50, ISBN 0-300-08378-5 Publication Date: October 2000

ASIA AND THE PACIFIC: Dittmer, Lowell; Haruhiro Fukui; and Peter N. S. Lee, eds. Informal Politics in East Asia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 308 pp., $59.95 cloth, $19.95 paper ISBN 0-521-64232-9 cloth ISBN 0-521-64538-7 paper Publication Date: July 2000

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, LAW AND ORGANIZATION: Boyle, Francis Anthony. Foundations of World Order: The Legalist Approach to International Relations, 1898-1922. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 220 pp., $54.95 cloth, $18.95 paper ISBN 0-8223-2327-3 cloth ISBN 0-8223-2364-8 paper Publication Date: August 1999

THEORY AND METHODOLOGY: Anderson, John C. Why Lawyers Derail Justice: Probing the Roots of Legal Injustices. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. 236 pp. + xii, $40.00 cloth, $18.95 paper ISBN 0-271-01842-9 cloth ISBN 0-271-01843-7 paper Publication Date: January 1999

Engeman, Thomas S., ed. Thomas Jefferson and the Politics of Nature. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press. 218 pp., $17.00 paper ISBN 0-268-04211-X paper Publication Date: June 2000: Browning, Gary K. Hegel and the History of Political Philosophy. New York: St. Martin's Press. 185 pp., $59.95, ISBN 0-312-22023-5 Publication Date: May 1999

Voegelin, Eric; ed. Gilbert Weiss; trans. Ruth Hein. Collected Works, Vol. 4: The Authoritarian State: An Essay on the Problem of the Austrian State. Columbia: University of Missouri Press. 396 pp., $39.95, ISBN 0-8262-1235-2 Publication Date: May 1999

Cliffe, Lionel; Maureen Ramsey; and David Bartlett. The Politics of Lying: Implications for Democracy. New York: St. Martin's Press 236 pp., $45.00, ISBN 0-312-23139-3 Publication Date: May 2000

Slomp, Gabriella. Thomas Hobbes and the Political Philosophy of Glory. New York: St. Martin's Press. 194 pp., $65.00, ISBN 0-312-23419-8 Publication Date: March 2000

Eisenstadt, S. N. Paradoxes of Democracy: Fragility, Continuity, and Change. Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center. Press/Johns Hopkins University Press 120 pp., $29.95, ISBN 0-8018-6309-0 Publication Date: September 1999

Newell, Waller R. Ruling Passion: The Erotics of Statecraft in Platonic Political Philosophy. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield 288 pp., $70.00 cloth, $24.95 paper ISBN 0-8476-9726-6 cloth ISBN 0-8476-9727-4 paper Publication Date: June 2000

GENERAL: Becker, Ted, and Christa Daryl Slaton. The Future of Teledemocracy. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. 230 pp., $65.00 cloth, $24.95 paper ISBN 0-275-96632-1 cloth ISBN 0-275-97090-6 paper Publication Date: June 2000

Sparrow, Malcolm K. The Regulatory Craft: Controlling Risks, Solving Problems, and Managing Compliance. Washington, DC: Council for Excellence in Government/Brookings Institution Press. 314 pp., $20.95 paper ISBN 0-8157-8065-6 paper Publication Date: July 2000

Dunn, Seth. Micropower: The Next Electrical Era. Washington, DC: World Watch Institute. 94 pp., $5.00 paper ISBN 1-878071-53-X paper Publication Date: July 2000

Morton, F. L., and Rainer Knopff. The Charter Revolution and the Court Party. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press. 227 pp., $19.95 paper ISBN 1-55111-089-X paper Publication Date: January 2000     

Gramsci's unorthodox Marxism: political ambiguity and sociological relevance

Gramsci's work continues to enjoy popularity amongst academics and activists. There is nonetheless a real question about the relevance of his central political ideas for the twenty-first century. This paper defends the thesis that Gramsci's humanism is part of a long tradition of political thought which dates back to Machiavelli, and that although this national-popular humanism is now outdated for reasons which are suggested in the writings and films of Pier Paolo Pasolini, there is also a sociological component to Gramsci's theorising that retains resonance today.