MACHIAVELLIANS

Freedom is basically the force that keeps democracy from decaying ... What an amazing book with beautiful observations and arguments! Loved it!

This book is an introduction to Machiavellian thought of political science. He goes through about 5-6 such writers from this school of thought and describes their teachings. Machiavellian thought is extremely practical and realistic and this book is an eye opener to someone who has no idea of this field. It is also a short and easy read.

If you are interested in the Machiavellian school of political science, then this is an excellent place to start. James Burnham started by analyzing Machiavelli, whom he obviously admires. Then, we analyzed the writings of other political scientists and philosophers who were, no doubt, influenced by Machiavelli. He is spare in his writing and remorseless in his analysis.

Um clássico pouco conhecido no Brasil. Essencial para quem quiser entender melhor o funcionamento da democracia liberal. Um porta de entrada para a escola Italiana da teoria das elites.

They say that making law is like making sausage - if you like sausage, you don't want to ever watch the process. Burnham explores, through his analysis of some fine experts on the subject, how government really governs - why rule of the elites is not a flaw, but the normal way that things work, and why that can be good or tragic. Once you gain the understanding of how things really work, and have always and will always work, in the halls of power, you will be either enlightened or terribly disillusioned, but your views of government and its functioning will never be the same. You have been warned - you will not see your sausage the same way ever again. An excellent and compelling read.

Does an excellent job of illuminating the human inclination to romanticizing social systems rather than analyzing the actual way humans behave in reality. The ideal of leaderless societies has done an incredible amount of harm.

I must admit to being an idealist in politics: I believe we should move towards a more just society and have ideas for what that would look like. In my 20's I thought we could get there with attention to facts, since then I've realized I just don't want to be run over by a train I can't stop. This book helped me understand why. I thought Machiavella was a pragmatist and opportunist, but he wasn't, he was a skeptical realist: he saw things as they were and not as he wanted them to be, and he suggested how to make them better. This book wonderfully clarifies what Machiavelli said versus what others say he said, and it extends that work into the "Machiavellians" thought took up that torch and brought the state of the art into the modern world. It is a very thought-provoking work on political science that is clear, realistic, hard hitting, and practical. No magic solutions, and yet it does suggest a way forward towards a better state without the rhetorical flourishes of the idealists or the bare-knuckles techniques of the pragmatists, both of which don't really work.