The People's Princes

A new window into Machiavellis idea of virtuous leadership and the appropriate relationship among leaders, common citizens, and elites. For more than a decade, John P. McCormick has been at the forefront of a new wave of scholarship that reveals the anti-elitist and democratic commitments at the center of Niccolo Machiavellis political thought. In The Peoples Princes, McCormick turns his attention to Machiavellis conception of virtuous leadership and Machiavellis views on the appropriate relationships among individual leaders, common citizens, and elites. While most people think of Machiavelli as a cynical advisor of tyrantsa man who counseled leaders to aggrandize themselves, by any means necessary, at the expense of their subjects and citizensThe Peoples Princes fundamentally challenges this understanding. Drawing from Machiavellis major political works a normative standard for leadership that emphasizes the mutually reinforcing relationship of civic leadership and popular government, McCormick delineates Machiavellis method of political exemplarity by analyzing in detail the Florentines case studies of leaders and their interactions with populaces throughout ancient and modern history. McCormick argues that Machiavelli suggests that civic leaders should enhance their reputations by providing for their own eventual obsolescence; specifically, they should establish institutional means through which common citizens rule themselves more directly and substantively. The Peoples Princes invites readers to consider Machiavelli anew, and also reflect on insights that remain relevant in the twenty-first century amidst growing concerns that political leaders are not accountable or responsive to popular majorities.