Machiavelli’s Plebeian Constituent Power

As a theorist of extraordinary politics, Machiavelli was concerned primarily with the mutation of the constitutional order. In this paper I first analyze Machiavelli’s description of the founding of Rome by Romulus as a free republic based on limited government, and the kingly power that is necessary to bring a republic back to its beginning, as in the refounding of Sparta by Cleomenes, and then focus on Machiavelli’s ideas on the remodeling of republics depending on their degree of existing corruption. I dedicate the third section to Machiavelli’s arguments to incorporate instances of extraordinary political action into the basic order so to avoid corruption and the need for revolutionary reformers. I conclude by highlighting Machiavelli’s contributions to our understanding of constituent power from a republican, plebeian perspective.