No Virtue Like Resilience

Machiavelli’s Realistic Justification of Democracy

Bibliographic Data

ID6345951
AuthorsCarlo Burelli (0000-0001-7012-2669, The Law School, The University of Chicago, USA, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume72
Issue4
Pages1471-1490
Publication date2024-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-3217 • E-ISSN: 1467-9248
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/00323217231191396
OpenAlexW4386051736
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited78

Is democracy a realistic political ideal? This article historically recovers and normatively assesses Machiavelli’s intuition that democratic institutions are realistically desirable in virtue of their resilience. The article takes inspiration from Machiavelli’s work in two ways. Methodologically, it argues that there is a distinctive realist normativity based on political virtues, that is, those skills that are instrumentally required to thrive in politics. Substantively, it probes Machiavelli’s idea that the most important political virtue, for both individuals and institutions, is resilience: the ability to continuously adapt to new circumstances. Machiavelli observes that democratic regimes are very resilient because, while individuals cannot change their character to adapt to new circumstances, democracies can just change the individual in charge. The article then refines Machiavelli’s intuition by building on the contemporary distinction between stability and resilience. It claims that authoritarian regimes are more stable, and yet less resilient. Democracies are instead characterised by a continuous flux of political outputs, which makes them seemingly wavering, and yet better equipped to experiment with unconventional adaptations. The two different literatures thus complement each other. The debate on resilience usefully clarifies and systematises Machiavelli’s intuition. Conversely, Machiavelli’s work reveals the salience of resilience in politics, and shows why it counts as a realist political value

Authoritarianism · Democracy · Economics · Epistemology · Intuition · Law and economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Sociology · Virtue · Law · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Political Theory and Influence · Social Policy and Reform Studies

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