College of Education

School of Continuing and Distance Education

2014/2015 – 2016/2017

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POLI 341: ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL POLITICAL THOUGHT

Session 12 - NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI’S ITALY AND THE STATE

Lecturers: Dr. E. Aggrey-Darkoh & Mr Alex K.D. Frempong Department of Political Science

Contact Information: eaggrey-darkoh@ug.edu.gh & kaadupong2002@yahoo.co.uk

godsonug.wordpress.com/blog

Session Overview

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• Welcome to session 12: Machiavelli on the State and Religion. • We are particularly happy that you have made it up to this point. • We introduce you to the background of Machiavelli by covering

his birth, education and profession, human nature as he saw it and Italy of his day.

• We also introduce you to the concept of the state by considering the foundation of government, nation-state and politics and law and the legislator.

• MaĐhiaǀellis Attitude to ƌeligioŶ ǁhiĐh he Đlaiŵs is soŵethiŶg that must be encouraged if the state is to be well governed but cautions the new prince not to dabble in it is seriously discussed.

Session Outline

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This session covers the following

topics:

•The Background of Machiavelli

•Machiaǀelli’s ItalLJ

•Machiaǀelli’s PersoŶal EdžperieŶces

•Foundation of Government and the State

TOPIC ONE

THE BACKGROUND OF MACHIAVELLI

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The Background of Machiavelli

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• The Italian statesman from Florence, Niccolo Machiavelli, wrote The Prince. • Machiavelli talks about the importance of the acquisition,

the maintenance and the exercise of power. • He makes it clear that the most important thing is the

acquisition of power and that how power is acquired is not really an important issue.

• For the Prince, issues about justice, morality, right and wrong

are as unimportant. • The Machiavellis were an ancient Florentine family to which

Niccolo was born in 1469. • His lawyer father was able to provide him with education in the classics to prepare him for public service.

The BaĐkgƌouŶd of MaĐhiaǀelli ;ĐoŶtdͿ

there if he is going to survive. 6

• His other books included ,The Discourses on Livy (1513-17), Art of War (1521), Florentine History (1525), The brilliant comedy, Mandragola. • He is said to advocate utterly ruthless and devious methods for the aĐƋuisitioŶ of poǁeƌ oƌ doiŶg doǁŶ of oŶes eŶeŵies. • The Prince is full of hard and calculated advice about how a new prince

should act to establish himself in a recently conquered princedom, and a good deal of the advice is about the use of violence and deceit.

• The prince cannot be loved by everybody. • Fƌoŵ this Đoŵes aŶotheƌ of MaĐhiaǀellis politiĐal adžioŵs foƌ a pƌudeŶt

prince: Treat everybody as a potential assassin, though it is clear that assassins prepared to risk horrible deaths to kill princes are rare.

• While princes are expected to be friendly to their subjects, the prince must wear the mask.

• While unmasking others, concealing his inner malevolence, while seeing through the inner malevolence which the prince must always assume is

Education and Profession

the highest fliers at very close quarters. 7

• Machiavelli entered the service of the Florentine republic in 1498 and busied himself about its military and diplomatic business until 1513.

• During this period, Machiavelli attempted to re-found FloƌeŶĐes hopes of ŵilitaƌLJ gloƌLJ oŶ a ĐitizeŶs ŵilitia.

• He also met the rising stars of Italian politics, popes and princes, especially Cesare Borgia.

• He also visited the courts of the French King, Louis XII and the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian.

• Machiavelli moved in circles high enough to observe

EducatioŶ aŶd ProfessioŶ ;coŶt’dͿ

overlook in the matter of public employment. 8

• In 1512, the Medici princes, backed by the pope and the Spaniards, returned to Florence and that seriously affected Machiavelli.

• He lost his job and in 1513 was tortured, imprisoned and fined for suspected complicity in a republican conspiracy against the new regime.

• Machiavelli, however, still had important friends who he thought would be able and willing to lobby the Medici on his behalf.

• His most famous work, The Prince, completed in 1513 ǁas iŶteŶded to shoǁ FloƌeŶĐes Ŷeǁ ŵasteƌs that its author was a man whom it would be foolish to

EducatioŶ aŶd ProfessioŶ ;coŶt’dͿ

• At the age of 29, in July 1498, Machiavelli was

appointed secretary to the Council of Ten, the

second most important executive council in the

(Florentine) Republic, which combined the

functions of a War and a Home Office.

• Four years into his career, a friend of his, Piero

Soderini was elected president for life for the

Florentine Republic.

• Though a civil servant Machiavelli contrived to

have a considerable say in the making of policy. 9

EducatioŶ aŶd ProfessioŶ ;coŶt’dͿ

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• Machiavelli lost in job in 1512 when his friend lost power when the Spaniards took Florence and brought back the Medici.

• He had served for nearly fifteen years and had acquired

a taste for active political life.

• He tried to win the favour of the new regime and to get employment without success.

• Machiavelli blamed several persons, not least Piero Soderini, for the disasters that befell the republic.

• He was never won over to them; his heart was never with them.

EducatioŶ aŶd ProfessioŶ ;coŶt’dͿ

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• He believe that where conditions allow it, democracy or free government is better than monarchy or princely rule. • MaĐhiaǀellis ĐhaƌaĐteƌ is easilLJ ŵisuŶdeƌstood ďeĐause it is

uncommon, so free from sentimentalities and illusions in which most men take comfort.

• His intelligence is keen; he lays bare our baser motives with a matter-of-factness which makes us uneasy. He is imaginative and lucid.

• His lucidity and cynicism make him cold to persons accustomed to look at the world through a comfortable haze. But he is not cold; he is as much capable of passion as of cynicism.

• He is not a man of very wide sympathies; but what he sees, he sees clearly and in sharp outline.

• He has few illusions about himself and still fewer about his

friends.

Child of Renaissance

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• Machiavelli was also the child of the Renaissance, which was seen as the eƌa of the disĐoǀeƌLJ of ŵaŶ. • During the renaissance the importance of man was recognized

and he was treated as an actor of social, political and economic events and a central figure of social milieu.

• Machiavelli placed the prince at the apex of the state structure and not the church. • Renaissance had kept aside the supernatural ideal of divine

perfection. • It gave priority to material progress through harnessing all the resources in the possession of society. • Machiavelli followed the same ideal as a man of activity to whom

the world is not a place of enjoyment of beauty and comfort but a place activity where dynamism can change society.

MaĐhiaǀellis ǁoƌks

• Moreover he wrote his books in enforced

retirement and to prepare the way, if possible, for a return to active political life.

• It was after 1512; during the years of his

retirement that Machiavelli wrote his four books

on government, on war, an on history.

• The shortest and most famous, The Prince, was

written in 1513 to attract the attention of the

Medici and induce them to employ him in affairs of state. 13

MaĐhiaǀellis ǁoƌks ;ĐoŶtdͿ

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• The arguments in The Prince, was perfectly consistent with the arguments of the much longer Discourses. • There is scarcely a maxim in the The Prince, whose

equivalent cannot be found in the Discourses. • It is in The Prince that Machiavelli owes his evil reputation. • At worst The Prince has been called a wicked one and

at best, a book not concerned with morality. • Both the Prince and the Discourses are filled with

detailed accounts of the strategies and policies, the successes and failures of such cotemporaries as Cesare Borgia and King Louis XII.

Human Nature

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• MaĐhiaǀellis Đhief iŶteƌests ǁeƌe assoĐiated ǁith the pƌaĐtiĐal affairs and he viewed the activities of man with special interest.

• People want to be loved or feared.

• They also want wealth (a very powerful motive).

• So gƌeat is ŵaŶs attaĐhŵeŶt to ǁealth that the desiƌe is unlimited.

• They want to get everything, but their ability is limited and as a result their desires remain unfulfilled; some people get more wealth, some do not.

• In this way, disparity develops out of which comes enmity

and sometimes war – the consequences of which are disastrous.

HuŵaŶ Nature ;coŶt’dͿ

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• The human desires are insatiable, because they want to have everything and do everything.

• Machiavelli portrays a frustrating picture of human nature - man is selfish, quarrelsome, and

power- hungry.

• To him, people of his time were guided by

materialistic considerations and not by moral and

ethical principles.

TOPIC TWO

MACHIAVELLI’S ITALY

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Machiaǀelli’s ItalLJ

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• The most revolutionary aspect of The Prince is that while from Greek philosophy down to the Renaissance all philosophers thought of the state as a means to achieve further ends, Machiavelli saw power of the state as the end of the state.

• To him every state should have the aim of maximizing its political power and the failure of the state in this enterprise will throw it into great turmoil.

• In Machiavelli's time Italy was divided into numerous small city- states and there was constant struggle among them.

• Five of the largest of such states were: – The kingdom of Naples in the south, – Milan in the north-west, – Venice in the north-east, – The republic of Florence and the Papal state.

Machiaǀelli’s ItalLJ ;coŶt’dͿ

5. Cruelty and murder became a day to day affair; 19

Machiavelli identified several factors that stood in the way of the realization of the goal of the unification of Italy:

1.The jealousies among the states were so severe that none wanted to cooperate with the other; 2.There was no powerful prince who could go ahead or

had the courage and material resources necessary for unification;

3.There were corruption, moral degradation and infidelity in every sphere of society;

4.Italy was a characteristic example of institutional decay;

Machiaǀelli’s ItalLJ ;coŶt’dͿ

situation. 20

6. Values and principles were banished from society;

7. Christian honesty and ethics were the values of the

past;

8. Profligacy (recklessness, wastefulness) and

debauchery (dishonesty, wickedness) were frequent;

9. Struggle for power was very common;

10.Naked selfishness reigned everywhere;

11.It was an age of bastards and adventurers.

• In short, turmoil of Italy could not cope with the new

TOPIC THREE

MACHIAVELLI’S PERSONAL EXPERIENCES

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Machiaǀelli’s PersoŶal EdžperieŶces

• The Prince opens with a cringing dedication to a Medici Prince, which contains a thinly veiled plea foƌ eŵploLJŵeŶt iŶ FloƌeŶĐes Ŷeǁ aŶti-republican government.

• History, it is said hardly contains another such blatant example of public coat-turning.

• The Prince contains many references of ancient history.

• All that Machiavelli seems to be saying is that if you

want to be a successful prince, these are the examples to follow. 22

Machiaǀelli’s PersoŶal EdžperieŶces

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All the ŵaiŶ poiŶts of the PƌiŶĐe aƌe ďased oŶ MaĐhiaǀellis three personal experiences. These included:

•His reaction to the famous military scandal in 1499;

•His first diplomatic mission to France in

1500;

•His meeting with Cesare Borgia in 1502.

His Reaction to the famous Military Scandal of 1499

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• The city-state of Florence was trying to capture the city-state of Pisa.

• The Florentines had already been trying without success to capture Pisa for four years.

• To historians, this war meant a great deal to the Florentines.

• Pisa not only provided a useful outlet to the sea for Florentine trade, but also its possession was a matter of pride.

• The Florentines did not have troops on their own so they relied on mercenaries who fought for hard cash.

• In 1499, Pisa was besieged by troops hired by Florence and led by Paulo Vitelli, a very expensive mercenary.

His Reaction to the famous Military ScaŶdal of ϭϰ99 ;coŶt’dͿ

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• In August 1499, his troops were on the verge of capturing Pisa when Vitelli ordered them to retreat.

• This news was received in Florence with dismay

and suspicion.

• The Florentines wondered what the intensions of the mercenaries were.

• They believed that if they had pressed on, Pisa could have surrendered.

• Vitalli was accused of being a traitor.

• He was subsequently trapped and executed.

His Reaction to the famous Military ScaŶdal of ϭϰ99 ;coŶt’dͿ

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• According to Machiavelli, mercenaries and allies were not to be trusted.

• He accused allies as being less reliable. They can take from you what they have taken away from others.

• He also accused mercenaries as unreliable and argued that they fight not for their country.

• Machiavelli believed that city-states must be militarily self- sufficient.

• He favoured soldiers who will fight with self-devotion for their friends, family, countrymen and women and fatherland.

• To establish himself firmly, a prince must be a soldier and create an army to defend his country.

His Reaction to the famous Military ScaŶdal of ϭϰ99 ;coŶt’dͿ

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• In the Prince, Machiavelli refers to the Vitelli affair and states,

a prince must build on sound foundation otherwise he is bound to come to grief. The main foundation of every state are good laws and good arms, and because you cannot have good laws without good arms and where there are good arms, good laws inevitably follow, I shall discuss laws but give my attention to arms. Now I say the arms on which the Prince bases the defense of his territory are either his own or mercenaries. Mercenaries are useless and dangerous. If a prince bases the defense of his territory on mercenaries, he will never achieve stability or security. Mercenaries are disunited thirsty for money, undisciplined, and disloyal. I should have little need to belabor this point because, the present ruin of Italy has been caused by nothing else but the reliance placed on mercenary troops for so many years

Machiaǀelli’s First Diploŵatic MissioŶ to France

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• In 1500, Machiavelli went to France to the Court of King Louis

XII. • Louis was an ally of Florence and had provided Florence with

troops for another assault on Pisa. • This assault had also ended in a disastrous failure. • The mission of Machiavelli was to explain and persuade the King

that the failure was not the fault of Florence but due to the indiscipline of the French troops.

• This was the first time Machiavelli was travelling outside Italy. • The French, he learnt had no respect for the Italians and the

Florentines for not having an army and being governed by merchants not committed to war.

• MaĐhiaǀelli ǁas ƌefeƌƌed to as Mr. Nothing. • He was shocked but he learnt some lessons from it.

Machiaǀelli’s First Diploŵatic MissioŶ to FraŶce ;coŶt’dͿ

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• He learnt that in the game of politics as it was being played, it was not enough to be

thrifty, frugal and economical one must be

able to:

– Spend money,

– Use force,

– Take quick decisions.

– Act dynamically and ruthlessly (adamant, callous, cruel, merciless, unrelenting, remorseless and barbarous).

Machiaǀelli’s ŵeetiŶg ǁith Cesare Borgia in 1502

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• Cesare Borgia with some external supported in 1502 engaged in the conquest of a group of territories in Eastern and Central Italy which had once belonged to the Papacy.

• He did this with a mixture of persuasion and

force.

• He watched Cesare Borgia use this technique with success.

• Machiavelli was also there when Cesare Borgia reconciled himself with four of his disloyal captains by having them strangled to death.

Machiaǀelli’s ŵeetiŶg ǁith Cesare Borgia iŶ ϭϱϬϮ ;coŶt’dͿ

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• He was also present when Cesare Borgia rewarded

his lieutenant, Ramirez de Lorqua, by having him cut into two pieces and displayed in the town square.

• Machiavelli admired these devices.

• AĐĐoƌdiŶg to hiŵ theLJ ƌestoƌed Boƌgias authoƌitLJ aŶd

helped him establish a fairly governed city-state.

• These methods involve deceits.

• He argued that one could use methods which may

not be privately admired but yield the required result heŶĐe the stateŵeŶt the end justifies the means .

TOPIC FOUR

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FOUNDATION OF GOVERNMENT AND THE STATE

Foundation of government and Reason of state

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• In the Middle Ages, the church propagated the

doctrine that government was created by God to

punish men for their sin.

• Machiavelli says that the government is founded

upon the weakness and insufficient capacity of men.

• Since men are incapable of protecting themselves, a government is necessary.

Nation-state and Power Politics

• For Machiavelli, a regular army is a must for a state for its own defence and to frustrate foreign aggression. • In The Prince, he says mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless

and dangerous. • Mercenaries have no love for the country for which they

fight.

• A well organized central administration is another powerful element of a nation-state.

• Machiavelli recommends a well organized and strong central administration. • He advices the prince to rule ruthlessly; and to resort to both

law and force. • He says in The Prince – A prince must build on sound foundations, otherwise he is bound to come to grief. The main foundations of every state are good laws and good arms. 34

Nation-state and Power Politics (coŶt’d)

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• Machiavelli gives highest priority to the integrity and unity of the state.

• He sees politiĐs as a ďattle , all politiĐs aƌe poǁeƌ politics

• A state therefore must have to build up its own

independent, regular and faithful army.

• He advises that a nation-state without a strong

army is highly susceptible to foreign invasion,

Nation-state and Power Politics (coŶt’d)

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• He says in chapter XIV of The Prince – A prince should therefore have no other aim or thought, nor take any other thing for his study, but war and its organization and discipline, for that is the only art that is necessary to one who commands, and it is of such virtue that it no only maintains those who were born princes, but often enables men of private fortune to attain that rank. When princes think more of luxury than of arms, they lose their state. The chief cause of the loss of states is the contempt of this art.

Nation-state and Power Politics (coŶt’d)

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• To Machiavelli, the sole aim of the prince is to be

an expert in managing and organizing war to

expand his powers.

• Power, to him, is the only reason of the state.

• Acquisition of more and more power is the sole

objective of many of the modern states

• This explains why nations do not hesitate to throw

values and judgements to the dogs.

Nation-state and Power Politics (coŶt’d)

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• Today he is regarded as the greatest exponent of doctrine of power politics in international

politics.

• MaĐhiaǀellis also ďaŶishes ChƌistiaŶitLJ fƌoŵ the states doŵaiŶ.

• Today the leaders of big powers are least interested

in religious affairs.

• MaĐhiaǀellis assuŵptioŶ that the state ŵust puƌsue a policy of self-interest and not of Bible morality was adopted

by theorists like Hegel, Bismarck and Hitler.

Law and Omnipotent Legislator

of change, from youth through maturity to decay. 39

• MaĐhiaǀellis eŵphasis upoŶ laǁ aŶd legislatoƌ comes from his view of human nature.

• To him, men are restless and run after illusive

good.

• Only a powerful statesman can save a corrupt republic from imminent ruin.

• Machiavelli believes that all states, unless external causes disrupt them, pass through the same cycle

Law and Omnipotent Legislator(coŶt’d)

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• This conception of the state later gave birth to the

notion of sovereignty as popularized by Jean Bodin

and Thomas Hobbes.

• Machiavelli took for granted that nearly

everyone wants to belong to a powerful and

respected political community.

• The Christian virtues he believes are servile

in their effects on character.