Dwarkesh Patel

We get suffragettes.

Did the inventor of the train intend for there to be women's liberation?

No.

Did it go the way he imagined?

No.

Did it go well?

Yes.

It's important, I think, here to zoom in a little bit on Florence's own government system and how and why it's weird in order to understand what rank Machiavelli actually holds in it.

So all of these republics, except Florence,

are modeled on ancient Rome.

And the ancient Roman model was an oligarchic republic in which within the city there are certain noble families, usually founding families who made the city in the first place, who they are the senatorial families.

Hereditarily, when they come of age, they automatically, the men of the family are in the Senate.

From among them are elected the

the consuls or high senators, or if there's a head of state, the head of state.

And so you have a small slice of the population that are fully enfranchised members of the republic who rule over the commoner majority.

That is how Venice works.

That is how Genoa works.

That is how Bologna and Siena, for the most part, work.

That's how the Swiss Republic works.

That's