Machiavelli's Republic: On Some Enduring Principles of the Discourses on Livy

Machiavelli, though best known as a teacher of princes, is also a teacher of republics. He is the author not only of the Principe but also of the Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio, a work which is not less fundamental to his thought, and which gives explicit instructions for the ordering of a free society. The aim of this thesis is to explain those instructions and to indicate their relevance today. In this respect, the thesis follows the trail blazed in recent decades by Quentin Skinner and his associates, who have argued that Machiavelli’s conception of liberty, after five centuries, remains useful. But the thesis finds that Skinner's understanding of Machiavelli is both incomplete and, on some crucial points, inaccurate.