Politički poredak renesansne Firence: između demokracije i oligarhije
The Political Order of Renaissance Florence: Between Democracy and Oligarchy

Summary/Abstract: This research deals with the stages of development of the political order of Florence, focusing on the changes of the republican order. Starting from Machiavelli’s Florentine Histories, which set forth a criticism of the first period of republican government until the establishment of the Medici seigniory, the author also analyses the other two stages of republican government in Florence. He thus puts together a periodization of three republican models of Florence during the Renaissance, which he refers to as the First, Second and Third Republics. The period of the First Republic stretches from 1250 to 1434, until the establishment of the first Medici seigniory. The period of the Second Republic, which lasted from 1498 to 1512, is assessed here as the period of a mature republic, which also witnessed a clear-cut defining of the theory of civil republicanism, primarily through the works of Machiavelli and Guicciardini. The Second Republic ended with the Medici restauration, when the republican government was once again suspended, and the republican institutions were abolished, although the state formally retained the designation of republic. After the fall of Rome in 1527, the Medici rule in Florence also collapsed, and the period of the Third Republic began; it lasted from 1527 to 1530. This short stretch of time saw a radicalisation of the Florentine republicanism, but the social antagonism within the city-state was also radicalised. For this reason, the Third Republic did not manage to withstand the internal tensions and conflicts, and thus to face a deteriorated international state of affairs. The republican government collapsed again and made way for the second Medici restauration. The author describes and analyses in the text the republican institutions and their metamorphoses from the First Republic to the Third Republic, as well as the attempts to stabilize the republican government and realize Machiavelli’s theory of the mixed form of government. The Florentine political order is therefore outlined as a development from communal democracy to civil republicanism with strong democratic elements, which, as a result of historical circumstances, was superseded by oligarchic forms of government.

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