Abstract

The political parties play the most influential role in our political society. An important trend in public opinion regrets this situation. But are really political parties always noxious? If they are, have not they been unavoidable for two centuries of liberal régime? Machiavelli developed for the first time a political theory that upholds that society could receive a great profit from political conflict through the maintenance of liberty. This paper deals with the peculiar meaning of this gain of liberty due to political conflict in Machiavelli's Discorsi and Istorie Fiorentine.