Machiavelli, Politics, and Morality

Drawing primarily on interpretations of Machiavelli, this article describes four conceptions of the relationship between politics and morality, together with key features of politics and morality that underlie them. One conception is manifest in the traditional image of Machiavelli as an immoralist and corrupt founder of the tradition of reason of state, who supposes politics to be a realm of action distinct from, and in conflict with, morality. A second conception, which in contrast to the first is captured in a view of Machiavelli as a moralist, contends that politics places on morality distinct demands which morality is nonetheless able to accommodate by distinguishing between public and private ethics. A third position on the relationship between politics and morality, suggested by interpretations that depict Machiavelli as a moralist of a deeply troubled sort, conceives of politics as a realm of tragedy. In a fourth and final view, politics is said to be the source of morality, a conception manifest in interpretations of Machiavelli that describe him as advocating a presumed pagan worldview. Rather than championing any one of these perspectives on the relation between politics and morality, the position adopted here is that each has something important to say about the perennial questions regarding the nature of politics, morality, and the relation between them.