«REALPOLITIK» — ОСНОВА ФОРМУВАННЯ КЛАСИЧНОГО МАКІАВЕЛЛІЗМУ

Abstract

Machiavelli’s creative work was and remains one of the most controversial in the history of world political thought. Some scholars enthusiastically quote him and call him the beginning of modern politics, others are ready to burn his own works because of their «immorality». There are also interpretations that he did not have much interest in philosophy and a tendency to generalize, or simply stated his position and in fact never tried to substantiate them in any way. The aim of this article was to identify key approaches to understanding the concepts of «Machiavellianism» and «pseudo-Machiavellianism» and the place of «realpolitik» in this doctrine. The article determined that the ideas founded by N. Machiavelli were further developed in a number of such areas. First, Machiavellianism, which we interpret as «classical Machiavellianism. » It should be noted that Machiavelli himself allowed deviations from it only in some cases. Secondly, in the background is the thinker’s attitude to his time and events as abnormal for human society, to the nature of the struggle for power in Italy — sharp, ruthless and insidious. And we call this kind of Machiavellianism «distorted Machiavellianism. » Third, the latter, also known as «modern Machiavellianism» with a variety of national, regional and ethnocultural manifestations. This calls for further in-depth and comprehensive research on this topic.