Machiavelli was not Machiavellian

This is an interesting article that you could ponder on.
Available in this link: http://www.italian-american.com/machi2.htm

by David K. Fry

In 1739 Frederick II, the King of Prussia, wrote a treatise condemning Machiavelli's The Prince. He wrote that Machiavelli "corrupted politics, and in so doing hoped to destroy the very precepts of sound morality." Since its publication in 1532, The Prince has been attacked as unprincipled and immoral. Machiavellianism has come to represent corrupt, ambitious, totalitarian rule, where the ends justify the means. However, this modern view of Niccolo Machiavelli is unjustified. We can see this by looking at Machiavelli's support for republics and his hopes for Italy.

Niccolo Machiavelli's republican beliefs are very apparent in most of his writing. However, when writing The Prince, he was focusing on monarchies instead of republics. He started the second chapter with the words, "I shall omit any discussion of republics as I have discussed them fully elsewhere" (Machiavelli 1). Since he was writing for the Prince, it would not have been appropriate to examine the republic.

While The Prince is Machiavelli's best known work, it is The Discourses which portray the most about him. The Prince was just a pamphlet dashed off to gain influence with the Medici, but in The Discourses he sought to include his entire system of politics. The basic idea of The Discourses is the superiority of the democratic republic and the ultimate reliance of even the most despotic regimes on the mass consent of the people (Lerner 10). This writing shows Machiavelli's love for the common good and the injustice of the modern connotation of Machiavellian.

Machiavelli's love for liberty is also evident when looking at his life. Machiavelli came from a republican family and had a position in the government of Florence. He was very concerned with maintaining the Florentine republic, and he worked to form a militia to protect it. After the republic fell in 1512, he was jailed for a month and tortured as a suspect in an assassination plot (De Grazia 34). As a republican, he was not trusted by the Medici in power, but he always strived to find a way back into politics. In The Prince, Machiavelli represented himself differently in hopes of gaining a position in government. This depiction of Machiavelli as a supporter of corrupt totalitarian rule is unfair because Niccolo Machiavelli strongly favored republics.

The modern view of Machiavelli can also be seen as unjust because of his love for Italy. Machiavelli had many hopes for Italy and spent most of his life working towards them. He supported the republic, but he wanted most of all for the people of Italy to be happy. He was very patriotic and wanted Italy to reach its full potential. While he did not support the often immoral and totalitarian rule of the Medici, he felt that by having a position in government he could make it better.

Niccolo Machiavelli understood the reality of the chaotic situation in Italy. He had seen corruption, deceit, and ruthlessness in government and knew how and why it existed. Few others have analyzed how to be an effective dictator because it is rather distasteful. But Machiavelli accepted the predicament and tried to understand the political and personal interactions that kept it going. In writing The Prince, he was not examining right or wrong. He was simply setting down what he knew in the hope that it would benefit the Prince and the country. He hoped that by helping the Prince rule more effectively, he might help Italy achieve the greatness he hoped for.

During Machiavelli's lifetime, Italy went through many changes and years of turmoil. When he wrote The Prince, Machiavelli most wanted stability. He wanted Italy unified under a single ruler. The final chapter of The Prince, "Exhortation to Free Italy from the Barbarians," encourages the Medici to this end. Machiavelli wrote:

"THIS BARBARIAN OCCUPATION STINKS IN THE NOSTRILS OF ALL OF US. Let your illustrious house then take up this cause with the spirit and the hope with which one undertakes a truly just enterprise so that under the banner of your house the country may be ennobled" (Machiavelli 78).
Machiavelli's hope for a unified Italian state far outweighed his dislikes for the Medici. "To Machiavelli, man's mission in this life, and his first duty, is patriotism toward the glory, greatness, and liberty of the fatherland." (De Sanctis 23) The Prince was his way of helping to bring about the changes he felt were necessary. He was not advocating corrupt, immoral totalitarian rule but a powerful ruler to give Italy stability and security.

Machiavelli is unfairly remembered as something he was not. The western view of Machiavellianism is one of power, ambition, and corruption. Instead, Niccolo Machiavelli was a republican and a patriot. He supported the republic in his writing and in his actions. He loved his country and worked fiercely to protect it. The term "Machiavellian" should represent liberty and patriotism. He supported the republic and loved his country.

Works Cited
De Grazia, Sebastian. Machiavelli in Hell. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989.
Frederick II. Oeuvres de Frederick II, Roi de Prusse. Berlin: Chez Voss et Fils, 1789. Translated by De Lamar Jensen
Lerner, Max. Machiavelli the Realist. Random House, 1950.
Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince. Arlington Heights: Harlan Davidson, 1947.
Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince and the Discourses. New York: Random House, 1950.