The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavellianism has become synonymous with cynicism and immorality, and any superficial analysis of the advice Niccolo Machiavelli offers to those in power in The Prince will confirm this view. After all, Machiavelli clearly states a ruler who wishes to maintain his power must be prepared to act immorally when this becomes necessary (Machiavelli 1988, p.54). A deeper analysis of Machiavelli's prescriptions will reveal that -indeed- he does not disregard the concept ofvirtue, but deconstructs that concept providing his own alternative definitions.
The philosophical foundations provided by Machiavelli's position on virtue also provide the foundations for the Realist approach to International Relations; Machiavelli analyses in terms of agents competing for power and his basic assumption is that human nature is bad. Machiavelli's deconstruction is also based on the notion that appearances might be deceptive: what appears to be good might actually be bad and vice versa. Machiavelli's philosophy is also essentially utilitarian; for him the end always justifies the means. Machiavelli's advice to rulers generally aims at achieving positive consequences for as many aspossible (usually both the ruler and the majority of his subjects).

In understanding Machiavelli's argument that a ruler should not always be virtuous, one should consider that The Prince is characterized by a conscious effort on the partof its author to say things as they are, in fact rather than as they ought to be in theory: I shall set aside fantasies about rulers, and consider whathappens in fact (Machiavelli 1988, p.55). Machiavelli lists the virtues that are generally held to be desirable and the vices that are generally held to be undesirable. He comments that even if a human being could have all these virtues (which is close to impossible) the circumstances make it hard to be virtuous. Therefore, what one should do in practice is to be careful not to display those vices that would endanger one's reputation and power. However, certain vices are essential to possess if one wishes to hold on to power: Yet one should not be troubled about becoming notorious for those vices without which it is difficult to preserve one's power, because if one considers everything carefully, doing some things that seem virtuous may result in one's ruin, whereas doing other things that seem vicious may strengthen one's position and cause to flourish (Machiavelli 1988, p.55). From this proposition, one may come to the conclusion that acting according to necessity, motivated by self-preservation is at the core of Machiavellianism.
Machiavelli goes on to deconstruct the concept of generosity. Generosity is a virtue and generally held to be a good quality, but Machiavelli proves the opposite. Hedoes, however, clarify that it is not generosity that he's attacking, but the effort and desire on the part of rulers to appear generous to their subjects. According to Machiavelli, if a ruler wants to appear generous, he will have to spend lavishly on his people. To fund this lavish spending the ruler will resort to heavy taxing which will consequently make him unpopular with his subjects.
Therefore, generosity might have the opposite effect to that expected and desired. In this perspective, if a ruler is not reluctant to do what ought to be done (in terms of necessity and not of morality), then he will be more successful as he will be doing what is prudent and brings the optimal outcome for both himself and his subjects. This, of course, is a characteristically utilitarian viewpoint.

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