Of Tribunes and Tyrants: Machiavelli's Legal and Extra‐Legal Modes for Controlling Elites

This essay examines the two means by which Machiavelli thought republics could address the political problem of predatory socio‐economic elites: Healthy republics, he proposes explicitly, should consistently check the “insolence of the nobles” by establishing constitutional offices like the Roman tribunes of the plebeians; corrupt republics, he suggests more subtly, should completely eliminate overweening oligarchs via the violent actions of a tyrannical individual. Roman‐styled tribunes, wielding veto, legislative and accusatory authority, contain the oppressive behavior of socio‐economic elites during normal republican circumstances. By contrast, having overthrown a republic grown corrupt through oligarchic encroachment on the commonweal, Machiavelli suggests that Greek‐styled tyrants lay the foundation for a more robust—that is, more egalitarian and martial—republic down the road by eliminating elites entirely and by instituting economic redistribution and military reforms.