NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI

Niccolò Machiavelli was an Italian diplomat of the XVIth century. 

BIOGRAPHY

He was born on May 3 1469, in Florence, Italy. By this time, Italy was divided into different states, which had a particular Government. He was a diplomat for 14 years in Italy's Florentine Republic during the Medici family's exile. Afterhis involvemen in an unsuccessful attempt to organize a Florentine militia against the return of the Medici family to power in 1512 became known, Machiavelli was accused of conspiracy, imprisoned, tortured and temporarily exiled and banished from an active role in political life. He then wrote  The Prince, a handbook for politiciand that established him as the 'father of modern political theory'. He died on June 21 1527, in Florence.   

THE PRINCE

This political treatise is his most well-known work. In it, the author outlined his vision of an ideal leader: an amoral and calculating tyrant. Also he explains what a prince has to do to maintain the power. He summarizes it in three points:

1. Annihilate the competence. To rule a modern state, the first thing that a prince has to do is kill the fmily of the previous prince.

2. Manipulate the citizenship. The prince has to subdue the people into his own choice. 

The prince has absolute power and he has to balance the interests of citizens to remain in power. 

3. Disassociate the ethics from the politics. To preserve the power, the prince has to do whatever. I doesn't matter if the means aren't ethical, because always "the purpose justifies the means". 
With this principle he breaks with the vinculation that Plato and Aristotle established between ethics and politics. 

INFLUENCES 

Machiavelli defends that humans do not have a natural moral to stop his insatiable desire and ability to make you conform to ethical principles. He says that humans have an invariable selfish ambition that rules their actions. This idea is defended by Hobbes too, who recognise the wickedness as a intrinsic property. 

He also influences in Montesquieu, in the consideration of political communities, law’s function and admiration for the old republics.  

Rousseau read Machavelli’s ideas too, and took from them the ideals of a civic community, and the primacy of it beyond the particular interests. Rousseau defends the general interest, because man only can be free in the community, but he is not agree with the separation between ethics and politics. The French author thinks that politics always has to improve human’s moral. 

   

Machiavelli's work determined the modern politician thought in relation to the monarchical power development and the Modern States. This is the model of state that, after the colonial expansion of the XIXth century, spread around the world. 

Some historical characters, like Napoleon or Winston Churchill, has inspired in The Prince to govern. 

Ambivalence in his thought mkes that there are some dfferent interpretations of his work. Nowadays, he is still considered a classic.