Domination and Social Division: The Sense of Republicanism in the Machiavelli of Claude Lefort

Abstract

This article reflects on the meaning of the republicanism of Machiavelli from the reading of Claude Lefort, from a hermeneutical approach that permits the establishment of a lively dialogue between classical political and contemporary political thought. The objective is to establish a genealogy of political theory that maintains focus on the aporetic essence of the political. In this case, around the question: how is it possible that conflict —the insoluble struggle between men— is a source of social cohesion? It questions the foundations of the constitution of political order. The article discovers that the Machiavellian moment is signed by the affirmation that only through conflict are individuals and groups placed inside a common world. To this end, we reflect on the theoretical thesis of Lefort, who finds in the Florentine thinker a theory of conflict as a possibility for the establishment of the society and, therefore, politics. This approach allows us to think about politics as an agonistic field and therefore, cleared from all teaching of tradition.