O perigo político das instituições militares: 500 anos da Arte da guerra de Maquiavel

The political danger of military institutions: 500 years of Machiavelli’s Art of war

Abstract

Our objective is to analyze how Machiavelli solves an apparent difficulty that arises from his political reflection on military forces. After defending the existence of its armies, formed by citizens of the political community, the danger arises of this military force becoming a political force. Since armies have weapons and social cohesion benefits deriving from the military organization, they configure themselves as hegemonic or even tyrannical power. We will try to stick here to this very particular aspect, which is how to think of the military force as a political actor on the stage of the public scene, considering its risks and benefits for the vivere libero civile. We will focus on the beginning of the book I of Machiavelli’s The Art of War.

Keywords: Machiavelli, The Art of War, military power