Politics. Rivista di Studi Politici

On the expression «Li òmini in universali iudicano più alli occhi che alle mani»: an Alternative Reading of Chapter 18 in The Prince

2017-09-23T10:25:58+00:00

This article clarifies the meaning of a key passage contained in Machiavelli’s The Prince (1513), chapter 18: «li òmini in universali iudicano più alli occhi che alle mani» («Men in general judge more by their eyes than by their hands») by linking it to Machiavelli’s early administrative letters where the image of the eyes and hands is often employed. While most scholars and translators agree that «eyes» and «hands» refer to «men» who judge, in the letters the hands
never belong to the judge but, rather, to the judged. Following this alternative interpretation, it is possible to appreciate the provoking originality showed by Machiavelli in turning upside down the context in which this image was usually employed. The Florentine secretary does not adopt the point of view of those who may be the potential victims of a deception (the judges) in order to warn them, as it used to be in the letters, but rather he writes in order to advise the
deceiver (the judged). The comparison with the technical use of the image in the letters also helps to identify those few who «feel who [the prince] is». They are not the virtuous or smart men who are able to expose the prince’s ruses but rather his victims.

Cartografia politica delle passioni: le istituzioni repubblicane in Saint-Just

2017-09-23T10:25:59+00:00

Among the many figures emerging from the controversies surrounding the French Revolution, the name and work of Saint-Just are often forgotten. Discussing the relationship between political theory and political practice, his thought was characterized by a constant attention to connecting social needs within new decision-making arrangements, according to the movements and the divisions occurring within society. The self-governing tendency of society is
a key focus, leading to the overcoming of laws, in favor of a downward distribution of powers: the institutions are spaces of connection between desires, habits, customs and needs, able to connect the different subjectivities. In order to give practical effect to these claims, Saint-Just inscribed the ontological force of social conflicts in a dynamics of transformation, where the equality of rights is the central node in the revolutionary becoming of the people, and virtue is seen as fidelity towards the revolutionary event itself.

Dalla fondazione alla crisi della democrazia. Rousseau e Le origini della Francia contemporanea di Taine

2017-09-23T10:26:00+00:00

The Origins of Contemporary France by H. Taine represents a diagnosis of the crisis that lasts from 1789 until the Commune in 1871. Taine identifies the affirmation of the democratic principle as the cause of the chronic state of the French malady. In this analysis, Rousseau and the Enlightenment become paramount, transforming modern contractualism and its rationalistic themes into a revolutionary ideology. Hence, the focus of Taine’s argument is the relationship between reason and crisis. In this reflection on the philosophical-political models
that have generated the democratic discourse, and on the epistemological paradigm shift between the XVIII and XIX centuries, the end-of-century positivism and liberalism emerge as using an anti-democratic stance against the Enlightenment, moving away from their progressive traits that derive from the Enlightenment. Every bond that links rationality, subject and social processes disappear, and the natural brutality of the crowd, whose physiological state is in fact pathological, persists. Rousseau’s critique is therefore a consequence of an age when society does not seem to be able to resolve its endless conflicts.

Seeing like a pariah? Note sulla (ri)appropriazione contemporanea del pensiero politico di Hannah Arendt

2017-09-23T10:26:01+00:00

It seems that there will be no end to the interpretation and discussion of Arendt’s political thought as well as of her intellectual stance and legacy. More strikingly, it seems that her diagnoses continue to be precious for dealing with the contemporary crisis of the modern project and categories. While new scholarship, together with new editions and translations of her writings, continue to appear regularly providing new insights into her intellectual constellations, one of the reasons of the persistent relevance of Arendt’s thought seems to be found in her present-focused and intensely realistic and critical style of thinking. In this light, this paper argues that crucial for understanding her thought’s continuing relevance is the role, value and responsibility she assigns to the figure of the conscious pariah (as she proudly was) and thus to the ‘resistant’ point of view the pariah expresses and offers against the totalizing and conformist view of the politics of exclusion.

Individui, masse e poteri, oggi

2017-09-23T10:26:02+00:00

The article reviews the main aspects of the research led by Elias Canetti in Crowds and Power. By analyzing the meanings of the images of his life’s work” [Lebenswerk], the article tries to demonstrate the relevance of its categories for a critical diagnosis of the present. Beyond “grabbing the twentieth century by the throat” by showing the hunting dynamics between individuals, crowds and power, the categories introduced by Canetti in his most important book
can be updated in order to understand the predatory relations among humans in
contemporary societies. For this reason, the last part of the article will be focused on the main transformations that have occurred in the collective and individual processes of domestication in contemporary societies: the final paragraph analyzes the latest developments of the baiting and double crowds of war in western democracies together with the spreading of the “secret
strategy of commands” inside and outside contemporary workplaces. Finally, the article will examine the possibility of social transformation embodied in today’s flight and prohibition crowds.

«L’adattamento della razza umana ad un nuovo modo di esistenza». Note su The Good Society di Walter Lippmann

2017-09-23T10:26:03+00:00

During the Colloque Lippmann (1938), Louis Rougier considered The Good Society by Walter Lippmann as the book through which to rethink the theoretical foundation of the liberal doctrine. This paper aims to show the elitist conception of the people’s
government and the idea of the regulation of lives through the principle of
competition, both contained in the above-mentioned book. This kind of research is
particularly useful to broaden the genealogy of contemporary neoliberalism.

Il sentimento come categoria politica: una lettura critica della teoria dell’agire comunicativo di J. Habermas

2017-09-23T10:26:05+00:00

The paper analyses Habermas’ concept of dramatic action (dramaturgisches Handeln) and its political meaning. In Theory of Communicative Actions Habermas supposes dramatic actions are not communicative, first of all because in this case the artist or the actor would not say the truth about his subjective world and for this reason, these actions are closer to strategic actions; secondly because sentimental communication is not as rational as dialogue and discourse.
This paper aims to demonstrate that dramatic actions could be communicative and improve Intersubjectivity, unlike what Habermas maintains with reference to Arendt’s communicative concept of Power and to Lyotard’s connection to Sentiment and Silence. Trying to develop a definition of sentiments in politics beyond populism, the paper aims to introduce another description of communicative actions in order to acknowledge Sentiments as an important
element for democracy, because these actions can encourage tolerance and respect for diversity.

Pensare la laicità nell’età ‘postsecolare’

2017-09-23T10:26:06+00:00

The aim of this essay is to examine the connection between contemporary debates on political secularism and institutional arrangements between State and religions on one hand, and, on the other, on secularization theory and its latest ‘rebirth’: postsecularism. Analysing the link between the theories and concept of postsecular society and the debate on political secularism and its institutional forms and practices allows to understand the multidimensionality of the latter in its very latest theorisations and realizations.