Abstract

In this research, I advance an interpretation of Machiavelli’s philosophy for constitutional change. I suggest that Machiavelli’s reading of Polybius’s theory of anacyclosis (circular theory of political change) opens up a new vision for political action and historical transformation. Machiavelli subjects the inherited metaphysical conception of constitutional change to a secular view, one characterized by virtue of action and uncertainty of outcomes ( Virtù/Fortuna), social divisions (nobility/plebeians), and political ideals (Republicanism). The interpretive suggestion put forth here is that Machiavelli’s innovation of the ancient theory of constitutional changes can be appreciated in terms of an oscillating pendulum rather than as a cycle, thereby fictitiously referring to the pendulum as an instrument mimicking the ‘truth of the matter’ ( verità effettuale) of a perpetual shift between principalities and republics rather than as an esoteric rite to foresee the future.