Thomas, Peter D.

The Modern Prince: Gramsci's Reading of Machiavelli

is part of History of Political Thought , 38 , 3 , 2017 , pp. 523 - 544
Gramsci's 'modern Prince' has often been interpreted in relation to his theory of political parties. According to this reading, Gramsci was constrained by carceral censorship to use this Machiavellian metaphor as a 'codeword'. This interpretation has tended to direct attention away from the novelty of Gramsci's reading of The Prince in the Prison Notebooks. This article argues that a contextualist and diachronic reading of the development of the figure of the modern Prince allows it to be understood as also a novel contribution to the Machiavelli scholarship of Gramsci's time and the tradition of 'democratic' readings of The Prince.
Language eng
Names [author] Thomas, Peter D.
Subjects
Machiavelli, Niccolò
Principe moderno
Machiavelli, Niccolò
Modern prince