Venice and Turkey: republicanism and history

Abstract

Building upon J. G. A. Pocock’s suggestion, this article presents the opposition between the myth of Venice and Turkey in modern republicans authors. Restricting the object to thinkers who fall into the “Florentine-Atlantic republic tradition”, who are more inclined to accept the imperatives of history rather than of natural right the text argues that these authors, in a more or less voluntary fashion, ultimately disseminate and deepen the striking distinction between East and West. We conclude that, even in the light of historic knowledge, these thinkers do not accept fair comparisons between Western and Eastern models, and references to Venice and Turkey contribute incisively to this understanding.