Camila Vergara, reviewing Patrick Boucheron’s biography of Machiavelli The Art of Teaching People What to Fear, which argues the Italian has been misunderstood as being anti-republican when in reality he wrote against the kind of oligarchic power he saw in the Medicis.

Given the pervasive lack of realism in U.S. politics today, it is clear that the republic would appear to Machiavelli as a corrupt order, not because the powerful few break the rules or because a faction attempts to undermine the integrity of elections, but because the people have been “either deceived or forced into decreeing their own ruin.” Perhaps the most important part of Machiavelli’s wisdom for our own time is that republics tend to become oligarchic, giving the powerful few indirect control over government.

When our attention turns to Machiavelli in times like these, we should take it as a sign to pay attention.