Pareto, Machiavelli, and the critique of ideal political theory

Bibliographic Data

ID7372255
AuthorsJoseph V Femia (University of Liverpool, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume51-2
Issue51-2
Pages133-148
Publication date2013-12-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueRevue européenne des sciences sociales (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0048-8046 • E-ISSN: 1663-4446
PublisherLibrairie Droz (PUBLISHER • CH)
DOI10.4000/ress.2554
OpenAlexW2025611082
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited14

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