The New Prince and Democracy. The Life of Castruccio Castracani by Nicolo Machiavelli and its Implications for the Concept of Popular Government

Abstract

This paper’s object of analysis is a biography dedicated by Machiavelli to a condottieri of the city of Lucca, a book with the title La vita de Castruccio Castracani. Based on this work, the main objective of the paper is to study Castracani as an exemplum of the new prince and its virtù, and also to explore the possibility of making a different lecture of the relationship between personal leadership and democracy. Thus, out of this work of Machiavelli, generally ignored by specialists, we suggest to retrieve the concept of popular government. This notion is not only an alternative to the traditional dicotomy between liberal democracy and populism, but it also acts as form for a democracy that is legitimized in the novelty incarnated by a personal figure, always in the republican matrix of Machiavelli.