Intensifying economic and political inequality poses a dangerous threat to the liberty of democratic citizens. Mounting evidence suggests that economic power, not popular will, determines public policy, and that elections consistently fail to keep public officials accountable to the people. John P. McCormick confronts this dire situation through a dramatic reinterpretation of Niccolo Machiavelli s political thought. Highlighting previously neglected democratic strains in Machiavelli s major writings, McCormick excavates institutions through which the common people of ancient, medieval, and...