Abstract
Machiavelli on tyranny in the Prince and the Discourses. The prince in the Prince is the new prince who seeks power. In the literature about tyranny, the new prince is often referred to as a usurper. The new prince may employ tyrannical techniques to gain power. If he seeks to remain in power, he must adapt to govern in some conformity with his subjects (people). In the Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy, Machiavelli presents the principal characteristics of tyrannical conduct and deplores them.
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- 1.
Machiavelli, Prince, tr. P. Sonnino (Atlantic Highlands, 1996); Discourses, tr. C.E. Detmaold (New York, 1940). Particularly useful works for this project have been: F. Gilbert, “The Humanist Concept of the Prince and the ‘Prince’ of Machiavelli,” Journal of Modern History 11 (1939), 449–83; F. Gilbert, Machiavelli and Guicciardini (Princeton, 1965); Q. Skinner, Machiavelli (Oxford, 1981); J.G.A. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment (Princeton, 1975); P. Stacey, Roman Monarchy and the Renaissance Prince (Cambridge, UK, 2007); S. de Grazia, Machiavelli in Hell (Princeton, 1989).
- 2.
For a recent learned discussion of the relation (and non-relation) of the two works, C. Celenza, Machiavelli (Cambridge, 2015), 65–133.
- 3.
Stacey, Roman Monarchy, 272.
- 4.
Machiavelli, Prince, intro., 18, chap. IX; and Discourses, III, chap. 6.
- 5.
See the review of this question by F. Gilbert, Machiavelli and Guicciardini, 326–30.
- 6.
Machiavelli, Discourses, I, chap. 2.
- 7.
Machiavelli, Discourses, I, chap. 2.
- 8.
Stacey, Roman Monarchy, 296ff, notes the elaboration of the definition.
- 9.
Machiavelli, Discourses, I, chap. 3, referring to Rome; but would this not be the case for the Venetian nobility?
- 10.
Machiavelli, Discourses, I, chap. 2.
- 11.
Machiavelli, Discourses, I, chap. 39.
- 12.
Machiavelli, Discourses, I, chap. 39.
- 13.
Machiavelli, Discourses, I, chap. 41.
- 14.
Machiavelli, Discourses, I, chap. 2, the principal chapter where he presents the forms of government and the individual’s relation to each.
- 15.
Machiavelli, Discourses, I, chap. 33.
- 16.
Machiavelli, Discourses, III, chap. 6.
- 17.
Machiavelli, Discourses, III, chap. 6.
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Ranum, O. (2020). Machiavelli on Tyranny in the Prince and the Discourses. In: Tyranny from Ancient Greece to Renaissance France. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43185-3_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43185-3_11
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