Against Throne and Altar, Machiavelli and Political Theory under the English Republic
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loginModern republicanism – distinguished from its classical counterpart by its com-mercial character and jealous distrust of those in power, by its use of representativeinstitutions, and by its employment of a separation of powers and a system of checksand balances – owes an immense debt to the republican experiment conducted inEngland between1649,when Charles I was executed, and1660,when Charles IIwas crowned. Though abortive, this experiment left a legacy in the political sci-ence articulated both by its champions, John Milton, Marchamont Nedham, andJames Harrington, and by its sometime opponent and ultimate supporter, ThomasHobbes. This volume examines these four thinkers, situates them with regard tothe novel species of republicanism first championed in the early1500sbyNiccol`oMachiavelli, and examines the debt that he and they owed the Epicurean traditionin philosophy and the political science crafted by the Arab philosophers Alfarabi,Avicenna, and Averro ̈es.
