ABOUT THIS BOOK

A new window into Machiavelli’s idea of virtuous leadership and the appropriate relationship among leaders, common citizens, and elites.

For more than a decade, John P. McCormick has been at the forefront of a new wave of scholarship that reveals the anti-elitist and democratic commitments at the center of Niccolo Machiavelli’s political thought. In The People’s Princes, McCormick turns his attention to Machiavelli’s conception of virtuous leadership and Machiavelli’s views on the appropriate relationships among individual leaders, common citizens, and elites.

While most people think of Machiavelli as a cynical advisor of tyrants—a man who counseled leaders to aggrandize themselves, by any means necessary, at the expense of their subjects and citizens—The People’s Princes fundamentally challenges this understanding. Drawing from Machiavelli’s major political works a normative standard for leadership that emphasizes the mutually reinforcing relationship of civic leadership and popular government, McCormick delineates Machiavelli’s method of “political exemplarity” by analyzing in detail the Florentine’s case studies of leaders and their interactions with populaces throughout ancient and modern history.

McCormick argues that Machiavelli suggests that civic leaders should enhance their reputations by providing for their own eventual obsolescence; specifically, they should establish institutional means through which common citizens rule themselves more directly and substantively. The People’s Princes invites readers to consider Machiavelli anew, and also reflect on insights that remain relevant in the twenty-first century amidst growing concerns that political leaders are not accountable or responsive to popular majorities.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

John P. McCormick is the Karl J. Weintraub Professor in political science and the college at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Reading Machiavelli, Weimar Thought: A Contested Legacy, and Machiavellian Democracy, among other books.

REVIEWS

“In this brilliant work, McCormick compellingly argues that Machiavelli is neither a mere teacher of tyrants nor the simple defender of republican civic virtue. Instead, Machiavelli both advocates the salutary rule of a tyrant to correct the abuses of oligarchy and argues that the goal of any effective ruler is to cede power to the people. McCormick’s dual focus is of the utmost relevance to contemporary democratic politics in the US and elsewhere, threatened as they are by populist demagoguery and authoritarianism.”

— Victoria Kahn | University of California, Berkeley

“McCormick is back with another sweeping, timely book, this time focusing on popular leaders and their dangerous counterparts: tyrants-to-be. The poison and the antidote are never as close as when it comes to individuals, but Machiavelli thought that we must take some risks, for—without leadership—the people remain powerless. McCormick ingeniously turns Machiavelli’s reflections into a tool of analysis for today and an instrument for the political battles of tomorrow.”

— Gabriele Pedullà | author of “Machiavelli in Tumult: ‘The Discourses on Livy’ and the Origins of Political Conflictualism”

“The People’s Princes is a groundbreaking systematization and analysis of Machiavelli’s theory of virtuous leadership, delivering a clear, rich taxonomy of popular leaders. Through McCormick’s narration of different leaders throughout history—including their victories, conspiracies, and failures—he brings to life the bloody class wars of the ancient and modern worlds.”

— Camila Vergara | author of “Systemic Corruption: Constitutional Ideas for an Anti-Oligarchic Republic”

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Prince

Discourses

The Prince

Discourses

Florentine Histories

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