Pareto, Machiavelli, and the critique of ideal political theory

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7372255
AutoresJoseph V Femia (University of Liverpool, autor correspondente)
Ano2013
Volume51-2
Fascículo51-2
Páginas133-148
Data de publicação2013-12-15
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoRevue européenne des sciences sociales (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0048-8046 • E-ISSN: 1663-4446
EditoraLibrairie Droz (PUBLISHER • CH)
DOI10.4000/ress.2554
OpenAlexW2025611082
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas14

Recent years have witnessed the growing prominence of a "realist" challenge to the prevailing paradigm of normative political philosophy. It is argued that "ideal theory" is fact-insensitive and presupposes conditions that are at odds with the realities of politics. While the "non-ideal" approach to political philosophy presents itself as something new, this article demonstrates, to the contrary, that it originated in the work of Machiavelli, and that it was – in more recent times – developed by Pareto. The cogency of the realist critique of abstract speculation is also demonstrated. Still, political realism remains susceptible to the objection that it rationalises the status quo and offers no basis for systemic change. In response, this article argues that Machiavelli and – especially – Pareto provided the intellectual tools to deal with this objection. Social and political change, in their analysis, can be justified on functional rather than ideal grounds

Critical realism (philosophy of perception · Economics · Epistemology · Ideal (ethics · Normative · Pareto principle · Political philosophy · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Realism · Sociology · Status quo · Law · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Political Theory and Influence · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought