Machiavelli: Political Realism

“Those cruelties we may say are well employed, if it be permitted to speak well of things evil, which are done once for all under the necessity of self-preservation, and are not afterwards persisted in, but so far as possible modified to the advantage of the governed. Ill-employed cruelties, on the other hand, are those which from small beginnings increase rather than diminish with time. (…) Hence we may learn the lesson that on seizing a state, the usurper should make haste to inflict what injuries he must, at a stroke, that he may not have to renew them daily, but be enabled by their discontinuance to reassure men’s minds, and afterwards win them over by benefits.” (Chapter 8, Paragraph 9)

Reference: Nicolo Machiavelli. The Prince, trans. N.H. Thomson. Vol. XXXVI, Part 1. The Harvard Classics. New York: P.F. Collier & Son,1909–14; Bartleby.com, 2001. www.bartleby.com/36/1/. [09-03-2013]. Image: A. Melone. Portrait of a gentleman aka Cesare Borgia. 1500-1525.

Modern political philosophy was born with the completion of Machiavelli’s Il Principe or the Prince, in 1515, the same year More started work on his Utopia. The two works could not be more different: whereas More was trying to flee 16^th century England on the wings of his imagination, Machiavelli remained firmly rooted in the rich, blood-stained earth of fractured Italy, which was made up of several extremely wealthy city states that waged constant war on each other. More’s Utopia describes a city that caters to the needs of very good, morally upright people, people that celebrate democracy, diligence and learning. Machiavelli had rather a different audience in mind.

According to him, people long for power above all things. The Prince offers practical advise on how to gain power and how to keep it. Machiavelli adds the necessary colour to his prose by frequently referencing the deeds of past kings and emperors. In his anecdotes Machiavelli does not distinguish between tyrants and saints. He measures the greatness of an empire by its glory and wealth, not by the happiness of its citizens or the ethics of its ruler. This is, perhaps, the greatest schism between Machiavelli and his predecessors: the divorce of ethics from politics.

Machiavelli explains how the cruelty of a ruler is fair, and necessary, if applied correctly, that is, rationally. The master of well-employed cruelties was surely Cesare Borgia, a Duke, Cardinal and Politician at whose court Machiavelli served in the winter of 1502 AD. The history of how Borgia quelled the rebellion in Romagna is one of the most infamous anecdotes of the book; Borgia ordered his friend Ramiro d'Orco to crush the rebellion using any force he deigned necessary. The mission was a great success, but the authority that d’Ocro gained as a result made Borgia nervous. So, he had the man publicly executed in the piazza of Cesena, confident that by the elimination of this potential enemy, he would also conveniently clear his reputation with the citizens of the town. According to Machiavelli, in order to be a successful ruler immorality is a prerequisite. Morality has use only in subjecting the people and glorifying the prince, and is not, in and of itself, something valuable or commendable.