Machiavelli blamed transitory conditions, not human nature, for Italy’s failure

Evidence

Machiavelli’s “human nature” embraces “European man”, who in France and Spain has effectively transcended the phase of the break-up of feudalism by means of the system of absolute monarchy: hence the creation of a unitary absolute monarchy in Italy is prevented not by “human nature” but by transitory conditions which the will can overcome. Machiavelli is “pessimistic” (or better realistic) when he regards men, and the motives of their actions: Guicciardini is not pessimistic, but sceptical and petty. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 730

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Machiavelli’s political theory expresses Italy’s specific structural contradictions of his era — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 638; Machiavelli’s thought answers three nested layers of Italian political crisis; Machiavelli must be read as historically situated, not as a timeless political scientist (+1 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Machiavelli’s political theory expresses Italy’s specific structural contradictions of his era — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 638; Machiavelli’s thought answers three nested layers of Italian political crisis; Machiavelli must be read as historically situated, not as a timeless political scientist (+1 more)