Gramsci andThe Prince: Taking Machiavelli outside the realist courtyard?

Abstract

AbstractIn the field of political theory, few authors have spurred intellectual tirades and triggered collective fantasy as much as the sixteenth-century Florentine Secretary Niccoló Machiavelli. Despite all controversies, in the discipline of International Relations (IR) Machiavelli and hisThe Princehave been almost exclusively associated with classical realism. This largely unchallenged association contributed to the edification of the myth ofThe Princeas the ruthless symbol ofraison d’état, carrying transcendental lessons about the nature of politics and a set of prescriptions on how helmsmen should behave to seize, maintain, and reinforce their power. The realist hijacking of Machiavelli is at the core of the foundation of classical realism as an IR theory and its location at the very epicentre of IR as a discipline. This appropriation has, in turn, obscured alternative myths ofThe Prince,which depart from Machiavelli’s reflections on thePrincipati nuovito readThe Princeas a radical manifesto for political change. The opening of the semantic space in the field of IR – spurred by the so-called interpretive turn – offers an opportunity to break this monochromatic reading. This article delves into two competing myths ofThe Prince: the classical realist myth and Gramsci’s ‘progressive’ one to demonstrate its contested nature.