Was Machiavelli 'Machiavellian'?
Whether one would declare Machiavelli 'Machiavellian', one must understand the definition of the phrase. Webster's dictionary definition of 'Machiavellian" is "the doctrine that any means, however lawless or unscrupulous, may be justifiably employed by a ruler in order to establish and maintain a strong central government." [footnoteRef:1] When reading The Prince, one must understand what circumstance Machiavelli was in at the time, Professor Max Lerner stated that Machiavelli wrote the "grammar of power"[footnoteRef:2] , before The Prince and The Discourses of Livy, at the period of political turmoil in Florence in 1513. Machiavelli's Prince was written in a personally volatile period being: imprisoned, tortured, and then exiled by the Medici family after devoting his life to public service since 1498. The heated moment of Machiavelli's life fostered a hatred of the Republic governed state; this is notable in his work The Prince, as he expresses how only a Principality can lead Italy to unification with a "cunning, duplicity or bad faith" [footnoteRef:3] mind-set. However, prior to this, Machiavelli was writing the Discourses, in which he states a clear stance of support for a Republican state, "a self-governing Italy, as a government which he considered wiser, stronger, more enduring and more flexible than any form of Monarchy." [footnoteRef:4] The famous letter for Ambassador Vettori on December 10, 1513, "The composition of the Prince," [footnoteRef:5] supports this claim. Nonetheless, it is clear from reading The Prince that Machiavelli was, in fact not 'Machiavellian', yet he truly believed that the only way that Italy would stand strong and united was to be primarily through the governance of a Principality, even if one must be: manipulative, courageous and brutal with their own politics, because maintaining your state is fundamental, and then perhaps a change to a Republic, which is notable in the Discourses. [1: Henry J. Abraham, Social Science, Vol. 28, No. 1, University of Pennsylvania, 1953, P. 25] [2: Jayanta K. Nanda, Management Thought, Ivy Publishing House, 2008, P. 33] [3: Henry J. Abraham, Social Science, Vol. 28, No. 1, University of Pennsylvania, 1953, P. 25] [4: Henry J. Abraham, Social Science, Vol. 28, No. 1, University of Pennsylvania, 1953, P. 28] [5: Henry J. Abraham, Social Science, Vol. 28, No. 1, University of Pennsylvania, 1953, P. 27] The Prince 'handbook' clearly devoted to and for Lorenzo de' Medici, was intended to send across a message that a political leader should not feel themselves bound by traditional morality but rather could engage in all kinds of 'cunning and duplicity' in order to hold on to power. On the one hand, Machiavelli explains that to maintain your state, one must be powerful, glorious, and famous, yet to have these characteristics, a Prince must also have Virtu. On the other hand, a Prince must avoid being hated and despised. In chapter...
