Corruption and inequality from the perspective of neorepublican interpreters of Machiavelli

Abstract

This article seeks to discuss the concept of corruption present in Machiavelli’s Discourse on the First Decade of Titus Livius (Discorsi). The problem that surrounds us is: is there any “disease” that is harmful to the life cycle of a republican body politic? The hypothesis with which we work places political corruption as the principal illness of a republic, whose damage becomes irreparable when its citizens lose their civic customs. We will describe the concept of corruption with which Machiavelli works; we will analyze its genesis and some of its civic and institutional repercussions on the Roman republic; we will map the notion and inequality developed by Florentine interpreters, among them: Pocock (2008), Skinner (1996), Bignotto (1991), Ménissier (2013), Sparling (2014) and Maher (2017). The present discussion will focus on the reading of chapters 16, 17, 18 and 55 of book I of the Discorsi. We will see that the civic and institutional sickness of that political body degenerated its virtù, which brought serious obstacles to the exercise of freedom.

Keywords

• virtù
• liberdade
• corrupção
• doença