Machiavelli in Tumult
The Discourses on Livy and the Origins of Political Conflictualism

Reconstructs the origins of the idea that social conflict, and not concord, makes political communities powerful.

Gabriele Pedullà (Author)

9781107177277, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 August 2018

298 pages, 7 b/w illus. 4 tables
23.6 x 15.8 x 2.1 cm, 0.57 kg

'Pedullà brings a remarkable facility with Machiavelli's historical context, as well as the classical tradition, to bear on his thesis … One anticipates future responses in the years to come, as scholars absorb and respond to this deeply learned work. Such is the praise it merits.' David Polansky, The Review of Politics

Among the theses that for centuries have ensured Niccolò Machiavelli an ambiguous fame, a special place goes to his extremely positive opinion of social conflicts, and, more in particular, to the claim that in ancient Rome 'the disunion between the plebs and the Roman senate made that republic free and powerful' (Discourses on Livy I.4). Contrary to a long tradition that had always highly valued civic concord, Machiavelli thought that - at least under certain conditions - internecine discord could be a source of strength and not of weakness, and built upon this daring proposition an original vision of political order. Machiavelli in Tumult (originally published in Italian in 2011) is the first book-length study entirely devoted to analyzing this idea, its ancient roots (never before identified), its enduring (but often invisible) influence up until the American and the French Revolution (and beyond), and its relevance for contemporary political theory.

Introduction
1. Concordia parvae res crescunt: the humanistic backdrop
2. 'A necessary inconvenience': the demystification of political concord
3. Fear and virtue: the rebuttal to humanistic pedagogy
4. 'The guard of liberty': the rejection of Aristotelian balance
5. 'Giving the foreigners citizenship': an expansionist republicanism
6. Dionysius' reappearance: the classical roots of modern conflictualism
7. Remembering the conflict: Machiavelli's legacy.

Subject Areas: Political science & theory [JPA], History of ideas [JFCX], Social & political philosophy [HPS], Philosophy [HP]