Machiavelli e la gratitudine pubblica repubblicana. Una teoria politico-istituzionale per il bene comune

The essay explores the still underexamined theme of gratitude in Niccolò Machiavelli’s political thought. Through an analysis of several chapters of the Discourses on Livy, it reconstructs the theoretical path through which Machiavelli redefines the idea of gratitude in civic and republican terms. The essay argues that Machiavelli outlines a genuine political-institutional theory of public gratitude, grounded in the recognition of merit through honors, rewards, and public practices of reputation.
In an uncorrupted republic, these instruments make it possible to direct human beings’ natural ambition toward the common good, transforming the desire for glory and recognition into a resource for free political life. By contrast, when a republic fails to publicly reward deserving citizens, ambition tends to seek satisfaction through private channels, fostering clientelism, corruption, and the destruction of republican liberty.

The essay thus shows that, in Machiavelli, gratitude is not merely a moral or private virtue, but a decisive institutional practice for the preservation of the republic.

Note on the text. This essay takes up and reworks themes also developed in "Machiavelli’s Gratitude", submitted to Brill in 2024 and forthcoming in 2026, and already anticipated in a paper presented in September 2024 in Milan at the conference of the Italian Association for the History of Political Thought.