Machiavelli the Mind of the PLEA Machiavelli CONTENTS

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PM40030156 The PLEA Vol. 40 No. 1 No. 40 Vol. The Mind of The Mind Machiavelli The Mind of The PLEA Machiavelli CONTENTS

3 Who was Niccolò The word “Machiavellian” brings deception, Machiavelli? cunning behaviour, and bad faith to mind. This is What influences the mind of a sixteenth- because of Niccolò Machiavelli, and specifically his 16th-century book The Prince. The Prince century Italian diplomat? shocked the ruling establishment with its dark exploration of political leadership. Lesser-known 6 Exploring Machiavelli’s but equally important is Machiavelli’s book The Discourses. The Discourses analysed how Florence government could be ideally structured. Together, What did the Tuscan city look like 500 these books have become foundational to the study years ago? of modern government. So who was Niccolò Machiavelli? What drove his 8 The Grounded Idealism unorthodox thoughts? And why are his works still relevant today? This issue of The PLEA explores of The Discourses these questions. It considers: Why did the Roman Republic have so • how Machiavelli’s life shaped his theories, much appeal to Machiavelli? • the Florence of Machiavelli’s time, • the ideal structure of government spelled 10 The Cynical Realism of out in The Discourses, and The Prince • the cynical theory of leadership spelled out Do successful leaders need to toss aside in The Prince. higher ideals? Ideal for most any reader, The Mind of Machiavelli fulfills several requirements across Saskatchewan’s 12 Further Resources social science curricula. It will also be of interest to people curious about the history of western Don’t stop learning now! governance and law-making processes.

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On the Cover Statue of Niccolò Machiavelli outside the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. Photo by Shutterstock.

2 teachers.plea.org Who was Niccolò Machiavelli?

From common man to top diplomat to political prisoner, Machiavelli experienced government like few others.

iccolò Machiavelli was born in Florence, Italy on May 3, 1469. At the time, Italy was not the unified country we know today. Instead, it was a collection of rivalrous city-states. NFlorence and its surrounding territory was a city-state controlled by the House of Medici. The Medici family ruled from 1434 to 1737, with two interruptions. The first interruption in Medici Rule, from 1494-1512, was when Machiavelli rose to prominence in Florence.

In 1492, Florence’s beloved ruler Lorenzo de’ Medici passed away. Known as Lorenzo the Magnificent, he Niccolò Machiavelli was not only a respected politician but also a patron of by Santi di Tito. Painted about 50 years the arts. Notably, Michelangelo, famous for such works after Machiavelli’s of art as the Statue of David and the Sistine Chapel, death, there is much received early support from Lorenzo the Magnificent. speculation about the With Lorenzo the Magnificent’s death, Florence’s inspiration and sources leadership passed down to Piero di Lorenzo de’ Medici. for the portrait. ∫ Unlike his “magnificent” father, history graced Piero with a rather unflattering name: Piero the Unfortunate.

Piero’s biggest fear was King Charles VIII of France, who was making plans to invade Italy. In response, Piero made the fateful decision to abandon Florence’s alliance with France in favour of an alliance with Naples, the southern Italian city-state.

When France’s soldiers poured into Florentian territory in 1494, Piero panicked. He rode off to meet Charles VIII and negotiate peace. The peace deal gave in to almost every French demand: the French would prop up Medici rule if

teachers.plea.org 3 The PLEA The Mind of Machiavelli

Florence turned over key fortresses. towards his next goal. Savonarola Such experiences were valuable for The deal all but guaranteed Florence had plans to turn Florence into a City understanding common people’s would lose control of Pisa, the of God. God had different plans. views. That Machiavelli had always rival city it conquered in 1406. In 1498, the city revolted against been sceptical of Savonarola’s Florentians were enraged. Riots Savonarola’s puritan excesses, and extremist politics didn’t hurt, either. broke out, mobs sacked the Medici he was burned at the stake. Palace, and Piero went into exile. Machiavelli’s work took him on diplomatic missions, where he The power vacuum created by Piero’s 1498: Enter observed and negotiated with rulers exit allowed a fanatical priest named and governments of all kinds. Girolamo Savonarola to become Machiavelli His analysis and statesmanship Florence’s most influential man. Despite Savonarola’s execution, the impressed Piero Soderini, the Savonarola endorsed the popolani Great Council government he was man elected in 1502 as Florence’s (populists), paving the way for a instrumental in creating remained gonfalonier—a sort of high justice— Great Council government. The new intact. Mere weeks after his death, for life. Machiavelli soon became government gave voting rights to a 29-year-old Niccolò Machiavelli Soderini’s right-hand man, placing almost half of Florence’s adult male joined this government as head of him at the centre of Florence’s population, a level of democracy Florence’s second chancery, a high political and diplomatic life. unmatched in Italy of the time. diplomatic office. Machiavelli’s proudest achievement Having used his considerable sway At first blush, Machiavelli is a under Soderini was replacing at the pulpit to usher in a democratic peculiar pick for a senior civil service Florence’s paid mercenaries with a government, Savonarola pivoted job. While the Machiavellis were citizen army. Machiavelli believed counted amongst Florence’s elite, that mercenaries made ineffective The Bonfire of the Niccolò’s arm of the family were soldiers: their allegiance was to their Vanities. Savonarola had black sheep: his paycheques and Florentines burn art, father’s piles of their own glory, playing cards, cosmetics, unpaid debt left Machiavelli’s not to the state. musical instruments, him ineligible proudest This military books, and other items to achievement under reorganisation purge Florence of sin. § to work in his profession as a Soderini was proved successful lawyer or hold replacing Florence’s when Florence public office. paid mercenaries took back control Nevertheless, with a citizen army of Pisa in 1509. both Niccolò and his father M a c h i a v e l l i ’s remained friendly with many next great project did not turn out Florentian elite. Such connections as well. France still had its eyes on were helpful for attaining large parts of Italy. Machiavelli set government work. Adding to out to convince France’s Louis XII Machievelli’s suitability for the job, and Pope Julius II to make peace he was an avid reader with a classic with each other, or at the very least humanist education. Such skills keep Florence out of their battles. were useful for a job that required He was unsuccessful. In order to documentation and correspondence. secure Italian territories, the Pope’s Rounding out Machiavelli’s Holy League army—backed by formal education was the street Spain—marched into Florence in learning he picked up as a fixture 1512. Machiavelli’s citizen militia in Florence’s brothels and taverns. crumbled, Soderini was ousted, and Giovanni di Lorenzo de’ Medici—

4 teachers.plea.org later Pope Leo X— Machiavelli’s vineyards, with Florence assumed power. The in the background. Note the cathedral Medicis were back. dome. This view tormented Machiavelli: he spent his final years longing to return The Writings of P e r h a p s n a i v e l y, to work for the government. ∂ Machiavelli believed Machiavelli he could carry on as a civil servant under the Most of us know Machiavelli restored Medici regime: as a political writer. However, he considered himself his writing spanned the a truth-teller, not a genres. He also wrote poetry, party man. However, histories, and plays. the Medicis sent Machiavelli packing. Even the Medicis recognised his brilliance as a writer. Things took a turn for the worse in 1513. In 1521 Cardinal Giulio, M a c h i a v e l l i w a s the nephew of Lorenzo the wrongly accused of Magnificent, commissioned taking part in an anti- Machiavelli to write Medicean conspiracy. Florentine Histories, an eight- He was locked away and tortured, On his land, Machiavelli settled volume retrospective of the destined for execution until fate into a life of sustenance labour city. It was published in 1532, intervened. When Giovanni and writing, sometimes struggling five years after his death. was appointed Pope Leo X, to keep his family fed. It was the Medicis granted Florence’s here, outside the halls of power, Machiavelli did not live to prisoners a mass amnesty as part where Machiavelli composed see The Prince published, of the celebrations. Machiavelli The Prince and The Discourses, walked out of prison and returned the two works that made him the either. Manuscripts of this to his family’s small plot of land, so-called “founder of modern 1513 book floated around ten miles south of Florence. political science.” Italy, but it never saw official release until 1532. In fact, his only major political work to THINK be published in his lifetime was 1520’s The Art of War.

1. Foreign armies helped overthrow the Medici regime in 1494, and While alive, Machiavelli was helped bring it back to power in 1512. better-known as a satirist. a) Can you think of instances today where foreign governments His 1518 play La Mandragola involve themselves in the affairs of other countries? (The Mandrake) was widely b) Discuss the ethics of one country getting involved in praised. This farce about a another country. Are there times when it is justified? miraculous fertility potion— 2. Machiavelli had experience inside and outside the halls of power. often called the greatest As well, he was acquainted with both powerful and common people. comedy in the Italian language—is still being a) Why must the ruling class understand the lives of common people? staged today. b) Do the ruling class know how to govern better than common people?

teachers.plea.org 5 Duomo di Firenze, where Savonorola preached, had the world’s largest cathedral dome at the time of the Renaissance. Exploring † Machiavelli's Florence

San Marco Monastery, where Savonarola established his reputation as being able to speak directly with god. †

Palazzo Medici Riccardi, the Medici palace, was simple on the outside but lavish on the inside so the Medicis would not appear extravagant. † Woodcut of Florence (Firenze), Italy, from the Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493 ∫

6 teachers.plea.org Machiavelli's Florence

Palazzo Vecchio, where Soderini lived and Machiavelli worked, had the Hall of the Five Hundred added in 1494 for democratic assemblies. †

Oltrarno, the less-fashionable neighbourhood where Machiavelli grew up was across the river from the Ponte Vecchio became a place of upscale business when central district. Cosimo Medici banned the bridge’s “vile arts” of butcher † shops in favour of goldsmiths and jewellers. †

teachers.plea.org 7 The PLEA The Mind of Machiavelli The Grounded Idealism of The Discourses Machiavelli said that states are not natural creations: they are human constructions. How can we make these constructions work?

a c h i a v e l l i used to achieve political stability. To Of the three groups—royalty, the best, believed that demonstrate his theory, he analysed and the commoners—the watchful states could Titus Livy’s History of Rome. eyes of commoners were key to only survive preserving a free society. Upper classes in the long run In Rome, power was shared by three have “a great desire to dominate,” if they found a way to become groups: royal power in the consuls, but common people merely have M aristocratic power in the senate, and politically stable. Each type of “the desire not to be dominated.” To government common in his day had popular power in the tribunes. This ensure that the commoners were not a destabilising flaw. Monarchies— mixed form of government gave dominated, Machiavelli advocated the rule of kings and queens—would royalty, the best, and commoners a for a wide-range of democratic fail due to the overreach of royalty. seat at the table, able to voice their powers. They included the ability Aristocracies—the rule of the concerns and exercise their will. As to elect representatives, the right of “best”—would fail due to the insular he put it, “each would keep watch individuals to propose laws, and the nature of the elite. Democracies—the over the other.” In fact, Machiavelli power of public indictment, where rule of the common people—would said that the quarrels between the the masses could collectively pass fail due to the excesses of the mob. upper classes and the commoners judgment on an individual. were “the primary cause of Rome’s But what would happen if kings retaining her freedom.” Machiavelli was confident that and queens, the best, and c o m m o n e r s c o u l d common people all got be trusted with these together at the table of democratic powers. In government? his mind, “when two speakers of equal skill This is a key question are heard advocating tackled in Machiavelli’s The home in different alternatives, Discourses on the First Sant’Andrea in very rarely does one find Ten Books of Titus Livy. Percussina where Machiavelli lived the populace failing to The Discourses is a how-to after his exile from adopt the better view or guide for achieving political Florence. It sits incapable of appreciating stability. Machiavelli on the road from the truth of what it hears.” said that the friction Florence to Sienna. In other words, people between royalty, the best, Machiavelli would are sensible enough to and the commoners—if grill passers-by about news from places they make good decisions. all seated at the table of had travelled. ∂ government—could be

8 teachers.plea.org The Ends Justifies the Means

Machiavelli is sometimes credited with the saying “the ends justifies the means.” However, he never wrote those words. That said, passages in The Discourses as well as The Prince come close. In The Discourses, Machiavelli said that states need a founder—what he called a “prudent organizer”—to establish the institutions that create long-term political stability. The organiser must be an expert in constitutional rights, lack self-interest, and be prepared to engage in extraordinary means to create the “perfect commonwealth.” Machiavelli’s belief that the prudent organiser should be free to engage in extraordinary means to establish the state included the right to use “reprehensible actions.” Machiavelli thought that “when the effect is good... it always justifies the action. For it is the man who uses violence to spoil things, not the man who uses it to mend them, that is blameworthy.” His view on the use of violence is debatable, but in these words we see Machiavelli invoking the idea that the ends justifies the means.

That said, Machiavelli also worried consider Canada: our head of state And in British Columbia there is that people can be “easily moved by is the Queen or her representative recall legislation, a sort of public Splendid Hopes and Rash Promises.” (monarchy), our senate is supposedly indictment for the masses to pass If a clever person tried to lead people made up of the best members of judgment on elected representatives. in a bad direction, he pinned his society (aristocracy), and citizens hopes on a “grave man” emerging. elect representatives to the House Machiavelli did not invent mixed This grave man would convincingly of Commons (democracy). If we government: he was merely warn the people of looming danger. look to lower levels of government, contemplating how Ancient Rome we find other democratic rights was governed. The legacy of The In many ways, Machiavelli’s that Machiavelli advocated. For Discourses is that it was the first prescription for government—a example, in Saskatchewan we have modern political work to explicitly mixed system that spreads power the power to propose municipal advocate for a mixed system of around—lives on in today’s western bylaws through referendums. government as a way to preserve liberal democracies. For example, everyone’s freedom.

THINK

1. Machiavelli said that a state with diverse groups at the table of power would be more successful, because “it is better able to adapt itself to diverse circumstances owing to the diversity found among its citizens.” Do you agree? Do diverse groups make better decisions? 2. Talking about mobs, Machiavelli said “there is nothing more formidable than the masses disorganized and without a head, in another sense there is nothing more weak.” In other words, an angry mob will simply dissolve without leadership. Is this true? 3. Machiavelli was an advocate for free speech. He believed that “there can be no harm in defending an opinion by arguments so long as one has no intention of appealing either to authority or force.” Discuss the role of free speech in society. 4. Machiavelli said that a state could only survive “so long as the citizens are good.” Discuss.

teachers.plea.org 9 The PLEA The Mind of Machiavelli The Cynical Realism of The Prince Machiavelli said that successful leaders had no choice but to be cunning, because people were “fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.”

n Machiavelli’s time, most political thinkers busied themselves proposing utopias. Machiavelli, on the other hand, was Inot interested in dreaming up a perfect world. He was interested in making the real world work. To The desk where make it work, Machiavelli believed Machiavelli that leaders needed to “follow the wrote The real truth of things [rather] than an Prince and The imaginary view of them.” Hence, Discourses, Machiavelli wrote The Prince. one of his few remaining Quite possibly, The Prince was personal belongings. ∂ written as a job application. Despite being booted out of Florence following the Soderini government’s “how umeritedly I suffer a great and The Prince built on ideas in The overthrow, Machiavelli held out hope continued malignity of fortune.” Discourses: The Discourses spelled that the Medicis would recognise his out the best possible form of talents as a political observer and If The Prince was a job application, government and The Prince advised civil servant. The it failed. There is leaders how to gain and keep power. Prince, he told no evidence that Underlying Machiavelli’s advice a friend, opened Machiavelli’s Lorenzo read it. was a low view of human nature and up the possibility belief that leaders Machiavelli was a belief that rulers were constantly that “these Medici sometimes needed not invited back under threat. With human nature princes will put to do evil was into the halls of less-than-ideal and power always me to work.” influenced by power, aside from fragile, leaders should sometimes To that end, he the collapse the occasional use cunning and deceptive acts. dedicated the of the Soderini g o v e r n m e n t In Machiavelli’s words, “it would book to Lorenzo government. c o n t r a c t . serve [the Prince] to appear pious, Di Piero De’ Nevertheless, the faithful, humane, true, religious, Medici. The book went on to and even to be so, but only if he is dedication asked Lorenzo to consider become one of political science’s willing, should it become necessary, the book’s wisdom and understand most influential works. to act in the opposite manner.”

10 teachers.plea.org By suggesting that honesty is Had Soderini resorted to evil, laudable but evil is sometimes perhaps the Medicis would have necessary, The Prince undermined failed to take back Florence. In How virtue. Such advice flew in fact, passages in The Discourses the face of the era’s powerful grumble about Soderini’s Machiavellian religious doctrines. Churches reluctance to be ruthless. are You? were encouraging people It is important to understand that to be good. This, alongside Social psychologists Richard The Prince does not advocate evil passages that cast doubt on the Christie and Florence motivations of religious leaders, for evil’s sake. Rather, it suggests ways to use the shortcomings of Geis are known for their contributed to Pope Paul IV work on how to identify a banning the book in 1559. human nature to stay in power. Nevertheless, tyrants from distinct personality trait: Machiavelli’s belief that leaders Napoleon to Stalin to Hitler read Machiavellianism. By sometimes needed to do evil was The Prince. In fact, Italian fascist studying Machiavelli’s influenced by the collapse of the Benito Mussolini described it as writings—primarily The Soderini government. Political “the statesman’s supreme guide.” Prince and The Discourses— theorist Maurizio Viroli pointed they were able to create out that Machiavelli In the 400 years since Machiavelli a 20-question test that wrote The Prince, many measures Machiavellian directly witnessed the fall interpretations have been offered. attitudes and beliefs. of the Florentine Republic, Some people view it as a guide, due, in part, to the fact that others as a warning, and a few The test asks people to agree the good and honest [Piero] even see it as a satire. Regardless, Soderini ... refused to take or disagree with statements even if a cynical power-grabber such as “Never tell anyone the exceptional measures uses The Prince as a guide, the rest against the enemies of real reason you did something of us can use it as an antidote. The unless it is useful to do so.” the Republic because he Prince tells opportunistic leaders did not want to incur the The higher you score, the what to do, but also tells the rest more Machiavellian you are. reputation of being an of us what to look out for. ambitious and unjust man. Since the test was developed, it has been administered on THINK countless people by dozens of researchers. Some research has shown that men generally 1. The Prince is based on something called “consequentialist score higher than women. morality.” Put more simply, the ends justifies the means. Does the However, other research ends ever justify the means? has suggested that human nature is universal, given 2. The Prince said that it is better to be feared than loved. Do you the similar scores between agree? people of different races, 3. The Prince says nothing about the religious idea of a final judgment sexual orientations, and even day. Why is this absence significant? political ideologies.

4. Do you think that people are “fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of Take the test for yourself at gain.” Or are we better than that? https://openpsychometrics. org/tests/MACH-IV/ 5. If you were forming a new state today, what lessons would you take from The Prince and The Discourses?

teachers.plea.org 11 Further Resources Revolution Learn how revolutions overturn laws and institutions. Our Government Our Election The Nazi Satire Project Saskatchewan’s definitive guide to Learn how Nazi Germany used satire government, politics, to cast certain citizens as “others.” and elections.

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The best fortress is to be found in the love of the people, for although you may have fortresses they will not save you if you are hated by the people.

– Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince