The Machiavellian Moment by J.G.A. Pocock

In this article, Pocock interrogated Machiavelli's focus on armed militancy in the Discorsi as a recourse for temporal stability in polities subject to the whims of fortuna.

Pocock published 'Machiavelli, Harrington, and English Political Ideologies in the Eighteenth Century' in the William and Mary Quarterly.

Works like The Prince and those of some pre- English Civil War thinkers and a group of American Revolutionary personalities all faced similar such moments and offered related sets of answers. In response, Machiavelli sought to revive classical republican ideals. Machiavellian thought was a response to a series of crises facing early 16th century Florence in which a seemingly virtuous state was on the cusp of destruction. It posits a connection between republican thought in early 16th century Florence, English-Civil War Britain, and the American Revolution.Ī ' Machiavellian moment' is that moment when a new republic first confronts the problem of maintaining the stability of its ideals and institutions. Pocock ( Princeton University Press, 1975). The Machiavellian Moment is a work of intellectual history by J.

The Machiavellian Moment by J.G.A. Pocock