Abstract

GARCIA JURADO, Roberto. Machiavelli and the Armed Citizenry. Sociológica (Méx.) [online]. 2015, vol.30, n.85, pp.131-161. ISSN 2007-8358.

In The Prince, Machiavelli put forward the idea that a state needed to have its own army, that its citizenry should be armed. This idea, which rose to the heights of an imperious demand, is not only found in this book, but in his entire oeuvre. However, when we analyze his proposal in detail, not only do we observe many ambiguities and inconsistencies, but, above all, we can see that a modern state, such as the one that was emerging in his time, could hardly be based on a militia, on simply putting weapons into the hands of the citizenry, as he proposed.

Keywords : Machiavelli; militia; arms; modern state; citizenry.

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