Guerra e Politica in Machiavelli

Abstract

This article deals with the relationship between conflict andpolitics. In ch. 2 it will be shown that conflict is both in the body politicand in its relationship to the outside, and that for Machiavelli war cannotbe thought of separately from politics and vice versa. In ch. 3 it will beargued that before 1512, war played a primary role in Machiavelli’s thoughif compared to politics, and that political power consisted in the State’scapacity to make war. The way in which Machiavelli changed this position14ARTIGO Tempo da Ciência Volume 20 Número 40 2º semestre de 2013radically is the object of ch. 4. In particular, it deals with the decisive roleplayed by the “people”, understood in the most comprehensive meaningof the word, in overturning the relationship between politics and war: warbecomes a moment of the political life and the conquest of new territoriesis meaningful only insofar as the expression of a certain dialectics betweenthe conflicting “parts” within the State. This leads (in ch. 5) to the notionof territorial “border”: it will be shown that, in Machiavelli’s thought, theseparation of inner and outer space, of politics and war, is not absolutebut relative; the border does not separate but unites territories, does notlimit but expands citizenship. At the time when “absolute” borders becamethe foundation of sovereign power in Europe, Machiavelli, throughthe example of Rome, suggested a kind of “porous” border, and associatesit to an idea of “power” as inseparable from freedom.