Intensifying economic and political inequality poses a dangerous threat to the liberty of democratic citizens. Mounting evidence suggests that economic power, not popular will, determines public ...policy, and that elections consistently fail to keep public officials accountable to the people. McCormick confronts this dire situation through a dramatic reinterpretation of Niccolò Machiavelli's political thought. Highlighting previously neglected democratic strains in Machiavelli's major writings, McCormick excavates institutions through which the common people of ancient, medieval and Renaissance republics constrained the power of wealthy citizens and public magistrates, and he imagines how such institutions might be revived today. It reassesses one of the central figures in the Western political canon and decisively intervenes into current debates over institutional design and democratic reform. McCormick proposes a citizen body that excludes socioeconomic and political elites and grants randomly selected common people significant veto, legislative and censure authority within government and over public officials.
Taking into consideration the political and literary issues hanging upon the circulation of Machiavelli's works in England, this volume highlights how topics and ideas stemming from Machiavelli's ...books - including but not limited to the Prince - strongly influenced the contemporary political debate. The first section discusses early reactions to Machiavelli's works, focusing on authors such as Reginald Pole and William Thomas, depicting their complex interaction with Machiavelli. In section two, different features of Machiavelli's reading in Tudor literary and political culture are discussed, moving well beyond the traditional image of the tyrant or of the evil Machiavel. Machiavelli's historiography and republicanism and their influences on Tudor culture are discussed with reference to topical authors such as Walter Raleigh, Alberico Gentili, Philip Sidney; his role in contemporary dramatic writing, especially as concerns Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare, is taken into consideration. The last section explores Machiavelli's influence on English political culture in the seventeenth century, focusing on reason of state and political prudence, and discussing writers such as Henry Parker, Marchamont Nedham, James Harrington, Thomas Hobbes and Anthony Ascham. Overall, contributors put Machiavelli's image in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England into perspective, analyzing his role within courtly and prudential politics, and the importance of his ideological proposal in the tradition of republicanism and parliamentarianism.
The "democratic turn" in the scholarship on Niccolò Machiavelli has yet to consider the personal qualities or traits that sustain collective action and facilitate the plural interests of a majority. ...Should democratic actors adopt princely virtù, or does Machiavelli's corpus offer traits more suitable for democratic politics? This essay interprets Machiavelli's comedy, La Mandragola, to show how his characterization of the oft-neglected priest, Brother Timoteo, positions acquiescence as a uniquely democratic trait. An analysis of Timoteo's three soliloquies traces how his initial princely behavior transforms into acquiescence, and how this trait serves the interests of all characters, including Timoteo's own abiding interest in the reputation of his institution and collective action. This interpretation enriches our understanding of Machiavelli's democratic thought and challenges us to rethink the role acquiescence may play in contemporary politics.
This article illuminates how Machiavelli's critique of classical philosophy is fundamental to his teaching. It will argue that Machiavelli criticized classical philosophy for its ineffectiveness and ...its endorsement of the leisurely philosophic life as the best way of life. In contrast, Machiavelli's optimistic depiction of the scope of human power in controlling chance and his critique of the life of contemplation promote his new understanding of the best life, in which political life and its glory occupy the highest rank. I will then contend that in Machiavelli's writings there is a coherent and powerful defense of the political life as the alternative for the philosophical life of contemplation.
This article aims at bringing a comparative study of the works The Prince, of Niccolo Machiavelli, and The Servant, of James C. Hunter, and understand how the two books work the issue of leadership. ...From the analysis of the two works, we intend to show how the laboring subject occupies a central place in discussions of modern society, and to show that, although the two works in question are apparently so antagonistic in their leadership concepts, there is a series of common objectives and strategies that help us better understand the corporate world. Through the analysis of these two works, we were able to conclude that the leadership exercised by Hunter’s benevolent and servant leader, despite seeming so far from Machiavelli’s cold and rational leader, paradoxically does not avoid using the most appropriate strategies to maintain power and win the loyalty of his employees, which shows that Hunter’s conception of leadership does not fail to rely on elements characteristic of Machiavelli.
Motywy, które kierowały Machiavellim, gdy w 1512 roku pisał Księcia, były złożone1, choć niewątpliwie głównym dążeniem było podanie jasnych wskazań postępowania dla władcy, którego celem miałoby być ...uwolnienie Italii od cudzoziemców i - przede wszystkim - zjednoczenie kraju2. Wskazówki polityczne dla władców, które Machiavelli formułował na podstawie zagadnienia necessitas, odbiegały od tych, które ukształtowała polityczna myśl średniowiecza i wczesnego renesansu15, a ich źródła tkwią w pojęciu „sytuacji". W omawianym tomie nie zadbano o przytoczenie tej części tekstu, co dzieje się ze szkodą dla całokształtu recepcji artykułu Grzybowskiego. 11 W 1969 r. prof. Grzybowski z okazji pięćsetlecia urodzin florenckiego Sekretarza zorganizował na Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim międzynarodową sesję naukową poświęconą Machiavellemu, o czym wspomina B. Szlachta, op. cit., s. 30. 33 M. Kiwior-Filo, op. cit., s. 131, przyp. 44.
Both Zuckert and Strauss take the “surface” of Machiavelli's work as the necessary starting point for their interpretations. Zuckert differs from Strauss, however, with respect to what she takes the ...surface to be. She focuses more attentively on the literary character of the work, as written or literary, and so is led to a different series of observations and emphases in her interpretation of Machiavelli.
Personality influences decision making and ethical considerations. Its influence on the occurrence of research misbehavior has never been studied. This study aims to determine the association between ...personality traits and self-reported questionable research practices and research misconduct. We hypothesized that narcissistic, Machiavellianistic and psychopathic traits as well as self-esteem are associated with research misbehavior.
Included in this cross-sectional study design were 535 Dutch biomedical scientists (response rate 65%) from all hierarchical layers of 4 university medical centers in the Netherlands. We used validated personality questionnaires such as the Dark Triad (narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism), Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale, the Publication Pressure Questionnaire (PPQ), and also demographic and job-specific characteristics to investigate the association of personality traits with a composite research misbehavior severity score.
Machiavellianism was positively associated (beta 1.28, CI 1.06-1.53) with self-reported research misbehavior, while narcissism, psychopathy and self-esteem were not. Exploratory analysis revealed that narcissism and research misconduct were more severe among persons in higher academic ranks (i.e., professors) (p<0.01 and p<0.001, respectively), and self-esteem scores and publication pressure were lower (p<0.001 and p<0.01, respectively) as compared to postgraduate PhD fellows.
Machiavellianism may be a risk factor for research misbehaviour. Narcissism and research misbehaviour were more prevalent among biomedical scientists in higher academic positions. These results suggest that personality has an impact on research behavior and should be taken into account in fostering responsible conduct of research.
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