Montesquieu’s Religious Pluralism: Thinking about Tolerance Beyond Liberal Democracy

Ms. Wan Ning Seah, Midd 2016, who is pursuing her Ph.D in political science at Duke University, will deliver a talk at Middlebury on Tuesday, March 11, 2025.

At Middlebury, Wan Ning wrote an engaging honors thesis comparing Cicero’s account of the duty of a statesman, in his work On Duties, with Machiavelli’s account of what it takes to succeed in politics. Wan Ning pointed out how Machiavelli turned Cicero’s description of the qualities of the lion and the fox; what Cicero described as two ways of doing injustice, Machiavelli described as two essential elements of successful rule. Machiavelli also famously asserted that a prince is better off relying on fear rather than love, in direct opposition to Cicero.