No Virtue Like Resilience: Machiavelli's Realistic Justification of Democracy.
Is democracy a realistic political ideal? This article historically recovers and normatively assesses Machiavelli's intuition that democratic institutions are realistically desirable in virtue of their resilience. The article takes inspiration from Machiavelli's work in two ways. Methodologically, i...
| Published in: | Political Studies Vol. 72; no. 4; pp. 1471 - 1491 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Sage Publications Inc.
Nov2024
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=180675822&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 180675822 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00323217 PSZ jtl: Political Studies issn: 00323217 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Nov2024 vid: 72 iid: 4 pid: 344 pub: Sage Publications Inc. artinfo: ui: 180675822 10.1177/00323217231191396 ppf: 1471 ppct: 20 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T db: hlh ui: 180675822 – @attributes: type: P db: hlh ui: 180675822 tig: atl: No Virtue Like Resilience: Machiavelli's Realistic Justification of Democracy. aug: au: Burelli, Carlo affil: The Law School, The University of Chicago, USA su: Machiavelli, Niccolò, 1469-1527 Authoritarianism Intuition Political realism Normativity (Ethics) Psychological resilience sug: subj: Authoritarianism Intuition Political realism Normativity (Ethics) Psychological resilience Machiavelli, Niccolò, 1469-1527 keyword: democracy Machiavelli political normativity political realism resilience democracy Machiavelli political normativity political realism resilience ab: Is democracy a realistic political ideal? This article historically recovers and normatively assesses Machiavelli's intuition that democratic institutions are realistically desirable in virtue of their resilience. The article takes inspiration from Machiavelli's work in two ways. Methodologically, it argues that there is a distinctive realist normativity based on political virtues, that is, those skills that are instrumentally required to thrive in politics. Substantively, it probes Machiavelli's idea that the most important political virtue, for both individuals and institutions, is resilience: the ability to continuously adapt to new circumstances. Machiavelli observes that democratic regimes are very resilient because, while individuals cannot change their character to adapt to new circumstances, democracies can just change the individual in charge. The article then refines Machiavelli's intuition by building on the contemporary distinction between stability and resilience. It claims that authoritarian regimes are more stable, and yet less resilient. Democracies are instead characterised by a continuous flux of political outputs, which makes them seemingly wavering, and yet better equipped to experiment with unconventional adaptations. The two different literatures thus complement each other. The debate on resilience usefully clarifies and systematises Machiavelli's intuition. Conversely, Machiavelli's work reveals the salience of resilience in politics, and shows why it counts as a realist political value. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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