Machiavellianism

Machiavellianism refers in common parlance to the ready and systematic seizing of every advantage for oneself without regard to the rights or claims of other individuals or of the larger society. The Machiavellian is scornful of claims of conscience or morality and is restrained only by the need to be careful about breaking laws and violating mores, lest one get caught, not by any belief that a profitable action can be wrong. In the business world, the Machiavellian is prepared, as needed, to cook the books, advertise falsely, cut corners on product quality, sell pirated goods, and—where possible—cheat employees or damage the environment. In politics, the Machiavellian will add military force to weapons used in the quest for every advantage, fair or unfair.

Machiavellianism gets its name by association with the most notorious of the chief maxims associated with the Florentine philosopher, Nicolò Machiavelli (1469–1527). Machiavelli was the author of plays, poems, a sweeping history of his native city, a dialogue on warfare, and two of the most arresting works of political philosophy ever written. As happens with most “-isms” added to the name of a great thinker, Machiavellianism inevitably entails a dilution and distortion of his thought.

Machiavelli stated quite openly that his moral and political teachings were radical, and he even likened the novelty of his discoveries to those of the explorers who were in his day discovering unknown seas and continents. What he discovered, as he put it in The Prince, is to base thoughts and actions not on how people ought to live but on how they actually do live. His stated reason for so changing the foundation of ethics is that otherwise one achieves ruin rather than preservation. Machiavelli here presents himself as the ultimate realist in a world populated by naïfs, so it is no surprise that the naïfs would counterattack and denounce him as an enemy of morality: Machiavellianism is a pejorative term.

Machiavelli contributed to the emergence of Machiavellianism by cultivating the art of expressing shocking propositions in very crisp phrases (such as “Men are quicker to forget the death of a father than the loss of a patrimony,” “It is better to be feared than loved,” or “A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to justify breaking his word”). Furthermore, he often amplified such memorable maxims by illustrations, and this helped solidify his reputation as a teacher of evil. A favorite example is that of Cesare Borgia, whom Machiavelli describes as first appointing a certain thug to terrify a turbulent part of his domain and then, once his henchman's severe punishments have brought the population into submission, having him chopped into pieces in the town square. Machiavelli's apparent enthusiasm for Cesare Borgia's stunning use of treachery and murder not surprisingly helps cast Machiavellianism as the ultimate in the cynical rejection of moral decency for political gain.

Since people commonly turn their moral outrage against those still alive and threatening, however, the term as commonly used has become diluted: It is applied in newspaper pieces to annoying political opponents who strike one as unscrupulous. Standards have slipped even here. William Shakespeare's Richard III would be a better example of what Machiavellianism [Page 1310]requires, for he did not scruple to kill, deceive, or otherwise dispose of all those who stood between him and the throne, young children included. And yet he failed. Machiavelli wrote not to encourage evil but to foster success.

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