Machiavelli and the republican concept of politics

Abstract

In the story of the transition from politics to reason of state the central place belongs to Niccolo Machiavelli. Over the centuries, Machiavelli has been regarded as being mainly responsible for the dismissal of the notion of politics as the art of the republic, and the spiritual father of the doctrine of reason of state. Be it his sin or his greatest contribution to modern culture, what seems to be above dispute is that Machiavelli rejected the republican language and provided us with a new account of the goals and the means of politics. Against the view that politics is the art of establishing and preserving a good community, Machiavelli, it has been argued, stressed that the goal of politics is the pursuit of power, and that the “political man” cannot be the “good man of the ancients.” While some scholars have stressed that the originality of Machiavelli consists in the redefinition of the aim of politics, others have emphasised his contribution to a new methodology of political enquiry, or have presented Machiavelli as the theorist of politics as innovation, whose symbol is no longer the Humanists' good man, but the new prince. In his writings, politics assumes a more general significance meaning the art of dealing with contingent events, with fickle fortune, the symbol of pure, uncontrolled and unlegitimated contingency. Others still, in more recent years, have emphasized Machiavelli as the theorist of a republican version of power politics, whose main goal is not liberty, but greatness, expansion and glory.