Trust and Deceit: Machiavelli's Construction of the People

• In Event: Democracy and Toleration in Early Modern Political Thought

Abstract

In his dedication to The Prince, Machiavelli presents an interesting and paradoxical image of politics and the nature of rule. The reciprocal relationship between ruler and people is likened to the perspectivism of landscape painting. If one wants to capture the nature of rule and the nature of the people, one needs to understand the methods of “those who draw.” Simulation and dissimulation are intrinsic to political activity and to the pictorial arts. What both have in common is the visual representation of spatial and political reality. In Machiavelli “seeing” and “feeling” (chapter 18 of The Prince) together construct and maintain the political space within which ruler and people interact. At the same time, “seeing” and “feeling” are closely connected to, and inform, Machiavelli’s understanding of the “people” or the “masses” and how the latter in turn affect and inform political reality.

Author

• Benedetto Fontana, CUNY-Baruch College