Editor’s Note: This is a selection from “On Political Power and Personal Liberty in The Prince and The Discourses” from the spring 2014 issue of Social Research: An International Quarterly.
Although liberty is a recurring concern in Machiavelli’s
writings, there is no consensus regarding either the definition of the concept
or its relevance for his overall political thought. One direction of
Machiavellian interpretation that has gained prominence in recent decades has
focused on the concept of“libertas” in relation to a republican mode of
government, even though Machiavelli’s use of liberty cannot be simply equated
with republicanism. In tracing the various occurrences of the term in
Machiavelli’s political works, Marcia Colish has pointed out that in the
context of internal affairs“Machiavelli often connects libertà with
certain personal rights and community benefits that characterize free states
regardless of their constitutions.” She specifies, in fact, that “he clearly
identifies freedom with the protection of private rights.”…… Machiavelli imagines, moreover, how a condition of
entitlement can be set into place ex nihilo through sheer political and
military force:…….political power both creates and feeds off of a system of
privilege and parasitism.....To Read More....
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