ABSTRACT
Niccolo Machiavelli presents himself as a partisan of the young and the purveyor of the new in both of his most widely read works, The Prince and the Discourses on Livy. In this chapter the author lays out Machiavelli’s case for siding with the young. He argues that Machiavelli raises the status of youth not just by attributing to it characteristics not found among the old, but also by highlighting the danger it can pose to political orders. The author then considers the relationship between youth and newness, and old age and antiquity. Machiavelli favors republics because they are best suited to dealing with the vicissitudes of fortune. In his discussion of political change in the Discourses, Machiavelli undoubtedly addresses the young, but what he seems to call for is an alliance between the young and the old, where the latter provide judgment and the former force.
