Machiavelli

MACHIAVELLI

Machiavelli sought out to explore how a proper balance might be found between the powers of the state and powers of the citizen in two key texts, the prince and the discourses.

Prince = Major contribution

He argued that three major forms of government, monarchy, aristocracy and democracy ARE UNSTABLE and tend to create a cycle of corruption

says that monarchy turns to tyranny and aristocracy turns to oligarchy and democracy into monarchy which then turns to favour the monarchy a never ending cycle

pointed directly to Athens, saying that their democracy crumbled because of its inability to protect itself from this cycle

Believed that there was no natural god-given framework to order political life. RATHER it was the track of the politics to create order in the world - conceived politics as the struggle to win utilize and contain power. politics was a key element in social life

stressed TWO key institutional devices as critical to get civic virtue, that is the enforcement of law and upholding of religious warship

to distinguish between GOOD and BAD laws he looked at history as a key tool

believed that if a government kind find a BALANCE of the three consitutions, aristocracy, democracy and monarchy it can be SUCCESSFUL. Looked at rome as a prime example and was the reason why he idolized rome so much

Put the ends of the state before the individual

-longevity and expansionist (MACHIAVEELI THINKS THIS IS THE BEST FORM OF GLORY). distinction between Rome (expanded into a big empire) and Sparty (lasted for a millennium)