THE CONSTITUENT ROLE OF CONFLICTS IN MACHIAVELLI

Abstract

This paper intends to point to Machiavelli's “actuality” regarding the role of socio-political conflicts whose origin is people as a constituent power. We will try to show that this role is described in the first five chapters of Book I of Discourses in three main moments. First, the conflict appears as the only alternative for the creation of a republican institutional order where there is no wise legislator (like Lycurgus in Sparta) who ad um tratto could accomplish this work. Next, the conflict plays a constituent role in the emergence of the mixed form of government of the Roman republic through the relationship of scontro / encontro between the grandi and popolo. Finally, the conflict determines the general political dynamics of republican life insofar as Machiavelli attributes to them the merit of all the legal-political measures with which the Roman republic promoted and preserved freedom.