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THE POLITICAL ORDER OF RENAISSANCE FLORENCE: BETWEEN DEMOCRACY AND OLIGARCHY
Damir Grubiša
; Fakultet političkih znanosti Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
This research deals with the stages of development of the political order of
Florence, focusing on the changes of the republican order. Starting from
Machiavelli’s Florentine Histories, which set forth a criticism of the first period
of republican government until the establishment of the Medici seigniory,
the author also analyses the other two stages of republican government in
Florence. He thus puts together a periodization of three republican models
of Florence during the Renaissance, which he refers to as the First, Second
and Third Republics. The period of the First Republic stretches from 1250
to 1434, until the establishment of the first Medici seigniory. The period of
the Second Republic, which lasted from 1498 to 1512, is assessed here as the
period of a mature republic, which also witnessed a clear-cut defining of the
theory of civil republicanism, primarily through the works of Machiavelli and
Guicciardini. The Second Republic ended with the Medici restauration, when
the republican government was once again suspended, and the republican institutions
were abolished, although the state formally retained the designation
of republic. After the fall of Rome in 1527, the Medici rule in Florence also
collapsed, and the period of the Third Republic began; it lasted from 1527 to
1530. This short stretch of time saw a radicalisation of the Florentine republicanism,
but the social antagonism within the city-state was also radicalised.
For this reason, the Third Republic did not manage to withstand the internal
tensions and conflicts, and thus to face a deteriorated international state of
affairs. The republican government collapsed again and made way for the
second Medici restauration. The author describes and analyses in the text the
republican institutions and their metamorphoses from the First Republic to
the Third Republic, as well as the attempts to stabilize the republican government
and realize Machiavelli’s theory of the mixed form of government. The
Florentine political order is therefore outlined as a development from communal
democracy to civil republicanism with strong democratic elements, which,
as a result of historical circumstances, was superseded by oligarchic forms of
government.
Ključne riječi
civil republicanism; oligarchy; political order; institutions
Hrčak ID:
57686
URI
Datum izdavanja:
30.6.2010.
Posjeta: 2.705 *