Machiavelli against the Venice myth : a sixteenth-century dialogue on the nature of political representation
Abstract
The established reading of the political history of the Italian Renaissance suggests that Florentine political theory and praxis were among the key sources of modern democracy. Proponents of this reading believe that Florentines acknowledged certain key political values constitutive of modern democracy, such as freedom of speech, equality before the law, free access to public offi ces, active citizenship, and so on.
Some scholars - above all, members of the so-called Cambridge School - even recommend classical republicanism as a panacea to the ills of Western democracies. Under severe criticism in recent works of many commentators, this optimistic view has been revised.
Many scholars no longer understand republican Florence as a democratic regime built on citizens' equality, participation and representation. Instead of celebrating the birth of democracy, they show a wholly different picture of the republican regime - a triumph of oligarchy and elitist republicanism that has nothing, or almost nothing, in common with democracy.