Abstract

Nietzsche is rarely taken seriously as a thinker who offers a comprehensive political theory. He is often depicted as a liberal, but only at the expense of ignoring a significant part of his writings. Conversely, writers who portray Nietzsche as an elitist must elide the liberal implications of his praise of creativity and his critiques of truth, morality, and religion. In either case, he is usually understood as merely a critic, bereft of any positive contribution to political theory. I argue that Nietzsche revives and amends the republican tradition. ;In Part One, I explore the influence of Plato and Machiavelli on Nietzsche and argue that republicanism can be best understood as the convergence of three existential claims. First, the polis must rest on sanctified origins. Second, political structures must necessarily collapse. Third, history is not a linear progression but a cyclical repetition. Part Two builds on Part One and shows how some of Nietzsche's seemingly disparate teachings function within the framework of republicanism. In particular, Nietzsche's critical technique of genealogy, the examination of the pedigree of socio-political constructs, sanctifies the origin of the republic. His theory of decadence, conversely, explains why all states must collapse from internal disarray. Nietzsche's teaching of eternal recurrence, the doctrine that every moment has already been and will be again eternally, should not be understood literally but metaphorically. Nietzsche understands history as the perpetual repetition of accumulation, squandering, and exhaustion. World history has "progressed" through three cycles. The first begins with Homer and ends with Socrates, the second begins with the Romans and ends with St. Paul, the last stage begins with the Renaissance and ends with Richard Wagner