Discourses on Livy · Chapter
XXV explained
Machiavelli argues that anyone reforming a free state must preserve the semblance of old institutions to avoid unsettling the people.
What happens
Machiavelli argues that anyone reforming a free state must preserve the semblance of old institutions to avoid unsettling the people. He uses Roman examples—retaining twelve lictors for consuls and creating the Rex sacrificulus—to show how appearances can mask fundamental changes, ensuring public acceptance.
Themes in this chapter
Necessity and Reason of State
The need to maintain the appearance of tradition while enacting fundamental reforms to ensure stability and acceptance.
Virtù and Fortune
The prudent use of virtù in reforming institutions by skillfully managing appearances to control public perception.
Characters to notice
- Titus Livius
Source for the Roman examples of consular lictors and the Rex sacrificulus.
Key passages
“Whoever takes upon him to reform the government of a city, must, if his measures are to be well received and carried out with general approval, preserve at least the semblance of existing methods, so as not to appear to the people to have made any change in the old order of things; although, in truth, the new ordinances differ altogether from those which they replace.”
A reformer must keep the outward forms of the old system to avoid alarming the public, even if the new laws are completely different.
Machiavelli's core argument about the importance of appearances in political reform.
“For when this is attended to, the mass of mankind accept what seems as what is; nay, are often touched more nearly by appearances than by realities.”
Most people are more influenced by how things appear than by their actual substance.
Observation on human nature and the power of perception over reality.