Constituting Freedom

This chapter explores briefly the presence of the theme of the constitution in Machievelli’s early political works (ante res perditas), in his correspondence, and in the Art of War (post res perditas), then goes on to examine in detail the proposals for a constitution presented in the Discursus and the Minuta. The salient aspects that emerge are the strictly republican nature of Machiavelli’s political proposal and the idea of a constitution based on a new way of conceiving the mixture. Against every principality‐oligarchy hypothesis (such as the Medicean one) and against the (particularly Venetian) model of mixed government, Machiavelli proposed a constitution capable of generating equality out of existing inequalities, because only through equality is it possible to establish a free and civil way of life that is then capable of regenerating itself continually through the encounter-clash of the humours.