Introduction

Modern political thinkers have almost unanimously condemned italian, early modern republics as examples of bad institutions and bad morays. In leviathan, 16 51, hobbs ridicules the claim of lucca and of all the republics to be repositories of true political liberty. Montesquieu presents the italian republics as detestable examples of arbitrary power. Equally harsh is theverdict of the federalist papers 17 88, one of the fundamental texts of american democratic thought. If we move from conservatives, liberals and democrats to the marxists, things look no better.