Abstract
Jan Bíba follows up on McCormick''s critique of the Cambridge School''s republicanism in "The Venetian Myth of Liberal Democracy: Guicciardini and the Birth of Democratic Elitism". Bíba''s main thesis is that there exists a kinship between elitist republicanism and "democratic elitism." He argues that elite republicanism and democratic elitism share a common "Venetian myth".
The essence of this myth is the idea that freedom and stability are essentially incompatible,and that the only way of reconciling them is by limiting the regular population''s opportunities for participating in politics. Bíba examines the theories of Francesco Guicciardini and Joseph Schumpeter, whom he considers the main theoreticians of these two philosophies.
According to Bíba, this similarity is no coincidence; it testifies to a transformation of both theoreticians'' political language. The essence of this transformation rests in the infiltration of argumentation that have more to do with economics than with politics.