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  3. Machiavellian Democracy
  • Cited by 296
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    • Publisher:
      Cambridge University Press
      Publication date:
      05 June 2012
      31 January 2011
      ISBN:
      9780511975325
      9780521823906
      9780521530903
      DOI:
      https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511975325
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.5kg, 264 Pages
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.41kg, 266 Pages
      • Subjects:
      Political Theory, History, Politics and International Relations, History of Ideas and Intellectual History
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    Subjects:
    Political Theory, History, Politics and International Relations, History of Ideas and Intellectual History
    Information

    Book description

    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.

    Awards

    Winner of the 2013 Spitz Prize, International Conference for the Study of Political Thought

    Reviews

    'John McCormick has … offered a bold and compelling reading of an under-appreciated democratic strain in Machiavelli's thinking by highlighting the elite-controlling and citizen-empowering aspects of democratic institutions within Machiavelli's major writings. The book is an excellent work of scholarship that is sensitive to the nuances of the tradition in which Machiavelli was writing and the settled assumptions he sought to overturn.'

    Source: Theory and Event

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