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Niccolò
Machiavelli
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Machiavelli,
Niccolò (1469-1527),
Italian historian, statesman, and
political philosopher, whose
amoral, but influential writings
on statecraft have turned his
name into a synonym for cunning
and duplicity.
Born
in Florence on May 3, 1469,
Machiavelli entered government
service as a clerk and rose to
prominence when the Florentine
Republic was proclaimed in 1498.
He was secretary of the ten-man
council that conducted the
diplomatic negotiations and
supervised the military
operations of the republic, and
his duties included missions to
the French king (1504,
1510-1511), the Holy See (1506),
and the German emperor
(1507-1508). In the course of his
diplomatic missions within Italy
he became acquainted with many of
the
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Italian
rulers and was able to study
their political tactics,
particularly those of the
ecclesiastic and soldier Cesare
Borgia, who was at that time
engaged in enlarging his holdings
in central Italy. From 1503 to
1506 Machiavelli reorganized the
military defence of the republic
of Florence. Although mercenary
armies were common during this
period, he preferred to rely on
the conscription of native troops
to ensure a permanent and
patriotic defence of the
commonwealth. In 1512, when the
Medici, a Florentine family,
regained power in Florence and
the republic was dissolved, he
was deprived of office and
briefly imprisoned for alleged
conspiracy against them. After
his release he retired to his
estate near Florence, where he
wrote his most important works.
Despite his attempts to gain
favour with the Medici rulers, he
was never restored to his
prominent government position.
When the republic was temporarily
reinstated in 1527, he was
suspected by many republicans of
pro-Medici leanings. He died in
Florence on June 21 of that
year.
The
Prince
Throughout
his career Machiavelli sought to
establish a state capable of
resisting foreign attack. His
writings are concerned with the
principles on which such a state
is founded, and with the means by
which they can be implemented and
maintained. In his most famous
work, The Prince (1532; trans.
1640), he describes the method by
which a prince can acquire and
maintain political power. This
study, which has often been
regarded as a defence of the
despotism and tyranny of such
rulers as Cesare Borgia, is based
on Machiavelli's belief that a
ruler is not bound by traditional
ethical norms: "Is it better to
be loved than feared, or the
reverse? The answer is that it is
desirable to be both, but because
it is difficult to join them
together, it is much safer for a
prince to be feared than loved,
if he is to fail in one of the
two". In his view, a prince
should be concerned only with
power and be bound only by rules
that would lead to success in
political actions. Machiavelli
believed that these rules could
be discovered by deduction from
the political practices of the
time, as well as from those of
earlier periods.
Other
Important Works
Machiavelli's
formulation of the historical
principles inherent in Roman
government may be found in his
Discourse on the First Ten Books
of Titus Livius (1531; trans.
1636), a commentary on the
History of Rome by the Roman
historian Livy. In this study
Machiavelli departs from medieval
theocratic concepts of history,
ascribing historical events to
the demands of human nature and
the effects of chance. Among his
other works are Dell'arte della
guerra (On the Art of War, 1521),
which describes the advantages of
conscripted over mercenary
troops. The Istorie Fiorentine
(History of Florence, 1525)
interprets the chronicles of the
city, in terms of historical
causality. Machiavelli was also
the author of the biography Vita
di Castruccio Castracani (Life of
Castruccio Castracani, 1520), a
number of poems, and several
plays, of which the best known is
Mandragola (The Mandrake, 1524),
a biting and bawdy satire on the
corruption of contemporary
Italian society. Many of his
writings anticipated the growth
in succeeding periods of strong
nationalistic states.
Machiavellianism,
as a term, has been used to
describe the principles of power
politics, and the type of person
who uses those principles in
political or personal life is
frequently described as a
Machiavellian.
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