Montesquieu's anti-Machiavellian Machiavellianism

Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu, mentions Niccolò Machiavelli by name in his extant works just a handful of times. That, however, he read him carefully and thoroughly time and again there can be no doubt, and it is also clear that he couches his argument both in his Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline and in his Spirit of Laws as an appropriation and critique of the work of the predecessor whom he termed ‘this great man’. In this paper I explore the manner in which the Frenchman redeployed the arguments advanced by the Florentine for the purpose of refuting the latter's conclusions.

► Montesquieu's book on the Romans is a response to Machiavelli's Discourses on Livy.
► Montesquieu prioritizes the security of the individual.
► Machiavelli prefers the well-being of the sovereign.
► Montesquieu sides with Hobbes against Machiavelli.
► Montesquieu embraces commerce; Machiavelli, war.