Machiavelli's Work

Machiavelli's Work

The Art of War is the first major work on modern military thought, as the world's first systematic treatise on military strategy. His only major book that appeared before Machiavelli's death. Its seven volumes examines military strategy and the relationship between war and politics.

Italy could not be freed by hiring soldiers because:

"Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous. And if a prince holds on to his state by means of mercenary armies, he will never be stable or secure; for they are disunited, ambitious, without discipline, disloyal; they are brave among friends; among enemies they are cowards; they have no fear of God, they keep no faith with men; and your downfall is deferred only so long as the attack is deferred; and in peace you are plundered by them, in war by your enemies. The reason for this is that they have no other love nor other motive to keep them in the field than a meager wage, which is not enough to make them want to die for you. They love being your soldiers when you are not making war, but when war comes they either flee or desert.

Allies were not much better, for, "the arms of another man either slide off your back, weigh you down, or tie you up."

Machiavelli was the great promoter of the citizens' militia. He organized the first one in Florence and examined it in detail, concluding that the defence of a republic depended on the fighting ability and willingness of its citizens. Hired armies or mercenaries, he concluded, could not defend freedom. His ideas influenced the British "County Party" and the Americans before 1776 as they prepared to use their militias to defend freedom.

Niccolò Machiavelli's best-known book, Il Principe, contains a number of maxims concerning politics, but rather than the more traditional subject of a hereditary prince, it concentrates on the possibility of a "new prince". To retain power, the hereditary prince must carefully maintain the socio-political institutions to which the people are accustomed; whereas a new prince has the more difficult task in ruling, since he must first stabilize his new-found power in order to build an enduring political structure. That requires the prince being concerned with reputation but also being willing to act immorally. As a political scientist, Machiavelli emphasizes the occasional need for the methodical exercise of brute force, deceit, and so on.

The Prince, published in 1513, was a how-to book on securing and maintaining political power. It outlined how one could discourage political activism and keep the leader in power. The Prince was originally dedicated to Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici.

It is precisely this moralistic view of authority that Machiavelli criticizes at length in his best-known treatise, The Prince. For Machiavelli, there is no moral basis on which to judge the difference between legitimate and illegitimate uses of power. Rather, authority and power are essentially coequal: whoever has power has the right to command; but goodness does not ensure power and the good person has no more authority by virtue of being good. Thus, in direct opposition to a moralistic theory of politics, Machiavelli says that the only real concern of the political ruler is the acquisition and maintenance of power (although he talks less about power per sethan about "maintaining the state.") In this sense,