Machiavelli via Harrington

Le radici utopiche del repubblicanesimo contemporaneo

Abstract

This paper analyzes the mediating role of James Harrington’s utopian novel The Commonwealth of Oceana in the Anglophone interpretations of Machiavelli proposed by the so-called Republicanism. The hypothesis is that Harrington’s reading of Machiavelli (in particular, the valorization of the mixed constitution in the Secretary’s writings and the minimization of the role of social conflict as proposed in the Discourses) paved the ground for the subsequent interpretations of Machiavelli’s work carried out by what is improperly called the Cambridge School. Considering the elements of continuity with the classical tradition as more relevant than those that intend to overcome it, Quentin Skinner reads Machiavelli as the eminent voice of a ‘Neo-Roman’ tradition, through which it is possible to rethink the concept of liberty beyond its liberal declination.