THIS week’s Le Point news magazine has the portrait of Niccolo Machiavelli on its cover. Inside, a series of articles seeks to evaluate whether many French presidents, starting from the late François Mitterrand and going through Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and the current tenant of the Elysée Palace François Hollande are Machiavellian in their styles of handling power.
Which brings us to the basic question: who was Machiavelli and what does the term ‘Machiavellian’ really signify?
Count André de la Roche, a bit unwillingly at leisure these days on his Loire Valley vineyards because of incessant rains, had time to ruminate over the subject.
“Nobody has been so unjustifiably maligned by intellectuals and historians as Niccolo Machiavelli,” he says.
“Just look at the sinister turn the word ‘Machiavellian’ has taken! Instead of a political philosophy that it was intended to be, it signifies evil and cunning conspiracy, while Machiavelli was not writing about that at all.
“But to grasp the correct historical context we must understand first that Italy in the 15th century was not one country as it is today but a conglomeration of princely states led by Florence and its ruling Medici family.
“When Charles VIII of France conquered Florence, he removed the Medici clan from power and created an advisory set-up directly answerable to him. An important member of this bureaucratic hegemony was Niccolo Machiavelli, hardly 30 at the time.
“Until the Medici dynasty regained the leadership of Florence in 1512, Machiavelli had nearly a decade and a half to keenly observe how political power can be handled effectively for the good of the country. He travelled widely in Europe and visited Paris thrice as representative of Florence.
“But he was made to pay a high price for his long era of collaboration with the conqueror and was tried for sedition when the Medici tribe returned to power. He was acquitted under the promise of never again trying to enter the Florentine civil service.
“Had he continued being a bureaucrat we would never have known Machiavelli the way we do today. A lot of spare time and no work at a relatively young age inspired him to write a series of political essays, short stories and poetry.
“The best known of his works, but also the reason for which he is much vilified today, is The Prince. When we read Le Point’s analysis, we feel hypocritical about accusing Machiavelli of cunning and duplicity because all successful leaders draw inspirations from his teachings.
“Roland Dumas who is 91 today served Mitterrand for 10 years as foreign minister. In his exclusive interview to Le Point he says there is no place in politics for ethics or morality and it is the interest of the country that takes the upper hand; intelligence and pragmatism count and the ethical debates are essentially meant for TV watchers.
“Following its probe Le Point accords the highest points among the past French presidents to François Mitterrand and the lowest to Nicolas Sarkozy who is considered too emotionally agitated to qualify as a silent, patient and deep thinker, essential qualities in a prince as recommended by Machiavelli.
“Politics, he maintains, is cold business that should be handled without emotions. A politician who is powerful can be a lot more effective than the one who is loved by the masses … if only Machiavelli could see the ear-to-ear grins of all the American presidents from JFK downwards!
“Machiavelli who died in 1527 never saw the reunification of Italy, his dream that was finally fulfilled in 1870. The character of Tancredi Falconeri in Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s famous book The Leopard very eloquently elaborates Machiavelli’s thinking when he says ‘all must change so nothing changes’, a dictum that refers to Italy’s eternal greatness in face of revolutionary reforms.
“We are today so used to hypocritical world figures waxing eloquent on TV screens about climate change, epidemics and hunger etc that we forget how great leaders altered the histories of their countries by following Machiavelli’s advice.
“One of these was no doubt Otto von Bismarck who, taking Italy’s example as model, reunited a number of feuding east European states under the powerful, united German empire of which he later became the chancellor.
“The confusion over Machiavelli’s true message can only be resolved if we avoid seeking answers to specific questions in his writings, a mistake that his critics who have given us words like ‘Machiavellian’ and ‘Machiavellianism’ often make.
“Specific answers become obsolete with the passage of time because values change, but Machiavelli has kept us fascinated for the past nearly five centuries. Successive generations of politicians all over the world have loyally followed his teachings, as the special edition of Le Point illustrates.”
—The writer is a journalist based in Paris.
Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2014
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.