Antonio Negri e Machiavelli. Il realismo politico tra modernità e postmodernità

This article examines Antonio Negri’s interpretation of Machiavelli, illustrating how the Florentine thinker’s reflections on tumults and power inform Negri’s political theory. By tracing Negri’s intellectual trajectory – from his early writings, culminating in Insurgencies: Constituent Power and the Modern State, to his later collaborations with Michael Hardt (Empire, Multitude, Commonwealth, Assembly) – the study demonstrates how political realism provides a framework for theorizing an alternative modernity and its postmodern transformations within hyper-globalized capitalism. At the heart of this framework is Negri’s concept of constituent power, reimagined not as a claim to sovereignty but as a radical process of conflict, disruption, and renewal. Emphasizing the interplay between virtue and fortune and employing the methodology of political realism, the article argues that Machiavelli’s legacy underpins Negri’s theoretical approach. This reinterpretation challenges conventional political theory and inspires new forms of collective self-organization – such as counter-powers, institutions of the common, and assemblies – that seek to advance absolute democracy in contemporary society.