Between Monarchy And Republic

It has been about five hundred years since Machiavelli’s death, but controversies about him are still going on. One of these controversies is:What’s the relationship between The Prince and Discourses on Livyl Inconsistent or coherent? In recent years, more and more scholars tend to think that they are coherent. Based on this view, this article will re-examine Machiavelli’s political thought.The political thought of Machiavelli has a special context:the Italian Renaissance. A simple text-analysis without considering this context will easily lead to anachronism, namely putting some of the contemporary premises onto Machiavelli. This is one of the reasons why many thinkers and scholars in history have misunderstood Machiavelli. To avoid this error, this article will firstly establish an appropriate context for Machiavelli’s political thought, which includes the political and cultural conditions of Italy during the Renaissance, as well as Machiavelli’s personal life and political practice. In particular, the image of Machiavelli as a patriot will be highlighted. In this context, I attempt to clarify the political thought of Machiavelli’s three main concepts, i.e. his concepts of virtu, human nature and history. Based on these three concepts, I will re-examine Machiavelli’s political thought, and re-draw a theory of the establishment of a nation and its maintenance. After the whole work, we’ll find that there are both the element of monarchy and the element of republic in Machiavelli’s political thought. Some labels on him, like "monarchist" and "republican", are not appropriate.