A Prince of a Man
International lawyer and historian
Philip Bobbitt offers us a fundamental reinterpretation of Niccolo Machiavelli’s
“The Prince.” Instead of it being a manual for tyrants “The Prince” is, in
fact, an outline for the modern state that was to arise out of the feudal
order. Bobbitt calls this new governmental form the “princely state” which he
dates from the Treaty of Augsburg of 1555. For the reader not familiar with
Bobbitt’s “Shield of Achilles,” his history of governmental order, this book
can be rough going.
“The Garments of Court and Palace”
combines a long book review with a biography of Machiavelli. To him Machiavelli’s
priorities were to create a state to enhance the public good and to unify the
feudal states of Italy into a unified whole. He puts into perspective one of
Machiavelli’s most famous aphorisms, “the ends justify the means.” Taken literally
this is a license for extreme actions, but Bobbitt notes that to Machiavelli
the means have to be proportionate to the ends. When viewed this way,
Machiavelli’s aphorism is a constraint on a ruler rather than a license.
Bobbitt has a lengthy discussion on the
role of “virtu” and fortune in the affairs of a prince. “Virtu” here is defined
as skill and resoluteness and fortune is the role of chance. A prince has to be
constantly aware that fortune can overwhelm skill and effort or make a failed
policy successful. Flexibility is the key and this also applies to previously
entered treaties that no longer serve their original intent. Here I would add
the comment of the 20th century political philosopher and baseball
executive Branch Rickey who noted the “luck is the residue of design.” In other
words a prince has to make his own breaks.
Machiavelli understood the feudal world
was dying and a new form of governmental organization was required. To him a
republic governed by a prince sensitive to the needs of his populace was the
wave of the future.
Again as I noted above this book can be
difficult going, but if the reader wants to get a sense of Machiavelli, his
thoughts and the world he would make, it is worth the effort.
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