HouseofCards Format: Paperback

An analysis of the TV series House of Cards that explores the destructive effects of revenge in the political field.

What if Machiavelli’s Prince were a ferocious animal? What would happen if our political world were overtaken by vampires? Would they be capable of mastering their bloodthirsty instincts or would they remain true to their fundamental nature? In their relentless ambition and ruthless quest for power, the main characters in Netflix’s House of Cards series often take Machiavellian logic to its extreme. The specific necessity of a given situation always wins out over common morality, and the boundaries between good and evil are demolished. In the struggle for survival, these people are the predators, determined to come out on top whatever the cost.

In this book, Emmanuel Taïeb examines how the series takes monstrous characters and sets them in the world of politics, which offers little resistance to violence and turns into a laboratory for systematic destruction. In this variation on the conflict between brutalization and civilization at the heart of power, the political sphere becomes the scene of crime par excellence. 

Emmanuel Taïeb is professor of political science at the Institute of Political Studies of Lyon in France and chief editor of the reviews Saison and Quaderni.