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The Oligarch

Rewriting Machiavelli’s The Prince for Our Time

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  • © 2018

Overview

Authors:
  1. James Sherry

    1. New York, USA

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  • Establishes a distinction between form and operations of government and contends that form only accounts for part of the political process and is given too much attention, obscuring the more critical operations of government
  • Appeals to practical intelligence by showing how the form of The Prince can be configured to read quite differently and still reflect the realities of governance at many levels
  • Illustrates how little the operations and issues of governance have changed in 500 years

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
    Download chapter PDF

  2. 1: On the Types of Oligarchies

    • James Sherry
    Pages 1-22

  3. 2: On the Details of Acquisition and Management of Organizations

    • James Sherry
    Pages 23-40

  4. 3: Regarding the Form of Oligarchies

    • James Sherry
    Pages 41-60

  5. 4: On Managing Assets within Organizations

    • James Sherry
    Pages 61-80

  6. 5: Guidance on Oligarchic Comportment

    • James Sherry
    Pages 81-108

  7. 6: On the Projects of Oligarchs

    • James Sherry
    Pages 109-119

  8. 7: Regarding Good Offices

    • James Sherry
    Pages 121-142

  9. 8: On Risk Management and Marketplace Mentality

    • James Sherry
    Pages 143-156

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 157-157
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Keywords

About this book

This book uses the structure of Machiavelli’s The Prince to show how governance has changed over the last 500 years. If Machiavelli focuses on power concentrated in the hands of the republic or principalities, The Oligarch looks at how states and companies today function as oligarchies. Rather than dealing with the form of government, it addresses the operations and networks of governance for both states and corporations as a single set of common processes. The author links politics, ecology and literature, by using the literary device of appropriation to raise awareness of ecology and the overreach of powerful people, offering both wielders and critics of power a common ground based on how people in power actually conduct themselves. 

Reviews

“Admirers of Machiavelli’s ideas and style will enjoy this slim and provocative book which addresses a topic dear to the Florentine secretary: the role of elites in society and politics. James Sherry adds a new twist by taking account of the work of twentieth century ‘Machiavellians’ such as Gaetano Mosca, early James Burnham, as well as the networks described by ecologists. The result is a smart and ironic view of the contemporary networks of oligarchs, in business as well as in politics and society. Readers interested in such different topics as populism, corporate business, high-level politics and the inevitable Donald Trump will find food for thought—accompanied by Machiavellian wit.” (Giovanni Giorgini, Professor of Political Theory, University of Bologna, Italy and Princeton University, USA)

“500 years after Machiavelli, James Sherry offers us a modern [and wide-ranging] treatise on the oligarchs who now rule our world and how they gain and maintain power. One wonders if the pejorative ‘Sherryan’ will be hurled at the power plays of future oligarchs.”  (Jeff Cohen, Director, Park Center for Independent Media, Ithaca College, USA)

Authors and Affiliations

  • New York, USA

    James Sherry

About the author

James Sherry is the author of 12 books of criticism and poetry, most recently Oops! Environmental Poetics (2013) and Entangled Bank (2016). He is the editor of Roof Books, a literary press (roofbooks.com) in New York City, USA.

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