Satisfied in poverty? On Machiavelli’s argument of social division

The article aims to reconstruct the famous thesis about the social division between powerful and the people, as it is presented in Machiavelli’s major works, in order to show some important normative implications, it has for the contemporary political theory. Particularly, it brings about the concep...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Lucas Cardoso Petroni
Format: Article
Language:Portuguese
Published: Universidade Estadual de Londrina 2016-06-01
Series:Semina: Ciências Sociais e Humanas
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.uel.br/revistas/uel/index.php/seminasoc/article/view/25731
Description
Summary:The article aims to reconstruct the famous thesis about the social division between powerful and the people, as it is presented in Machiavelli’s major works, in order to show some important normative implications, it has for the contemporary political theory. Particularly, it brings about the conceptual position of “people” in Maquiavelli’s argument understood as a necessarily positional function under centralized political authorities. Finally, the article tries to present, in very broad strokes, two alternative appropriations of the argument. The notion of “people” plays two distinctive roles in each of these traditions, respectively, as an important tool against social oppression, and as the only possible source for political legitimacy.
ISSN:1676-5443
1679-0383