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Machiavelli And The Constitutionalism Of The City Republic Of Venice

Posted on:2011-02-02Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:X WuFull Text:PDF
GTID:2166330332958418Subject:Legal history
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This paper starts in the background of the transformation of European society from the ancient to the modern at the end of the middle Ages, based on Machiavelli's evaluation of the city Republic of Venice as a clue, and depicts the ideological transformation of the concept and practice of constitutionalism during that time, thus reveals its influence and contribution to future generations. The basic framework of the paper is as follows:After a brief introduction, the author illustrates the basic position of the constitutionalism and historical perspective. Then the paper is divided into three parts.Chapter 1 examines the process and the problems of the rise of the constitutionalism of Republic in the medieval Italian cities, as well as the typical constitutional mode, the city of the Republic of Venice. In the medieval feudal society of Western Europe, which is land-based, the Republic of Italian city established on the commerce develops a real republican system of government. However, the constitutionalism of most Republic of city did not handle the problem how the diverse sectors of society to share the state power over. Alone with Venice, through the wise design of the political structure, has maintained a republican form of government. Then the paper presents the constitutional model and the operation of government of Venice, evaluates them in the view of humanists.Chapter 2 analyzes the constitutionalism of the Republic of Venice in Machiavelli's perspective. Based on " De Livius", by Machiavelli, the paper compares Rome with Venice, and then probes the evaluation of Machiavelli on the Republic of Venice. After the comparisons in the owner of the Republic, the impact of the prince and the purpose of the Republic, the author believe that, in view of Machiavelli, the model of constitutionalism of Venice is different from the Rome's—Venice is a maintaining nation whose power is handled by the business nobles. For the mission of the Republic is to expand, Machiavelli accolades the model of Roman-style constitutionalism, and strongly finds the model of Venice the only success.Chapter 3 analyzes the ideal model of constitutionalism of Republic in the view of Machiavelli. First of all, this chapter examines the reasons why Machiavelli advocated the Roman model—in the Europe at the end of middle Ages, the traditional political structure was under disintegration,and new absolute monarchy and the nation-state was on the rise. Every Republic of Italian city confronted the disputes between civilians and nobles and the emerging absolute monarchy countries coveted wealth and territory of the Italy. Machiavelli believed that the solution should be handed the Republic over to the prince with Virtú, and Italy's dictator should be encouraged to re-build the constitutionalism of Republic, to return to the original source, rather than the complete destruction of the Republic. Meanwhile, he believed that people had the right to overthrow the tyrant rule of the prince.Finally, in conclusion, the author believes that the late medieval European society does not have the existing basis of the model of traditional city of the Republic of the constitutionalism any longer. Therefore, Machiavelli's new model of constitutionalism is the product of specific social conditions, and has a great impact to the model of constitutionalism of the modern nation state.
Keywords/Search Tags:Middle Ages, Constitutionalism, city republic, Machiavelli
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