Machiavelli at 550—Reflections on his contribution to management, marketing, and public affairs

• Published date: 01 November 2019
• Author: Phil Harris
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2056
• Date: 01 November 2019

EDITORIAL

Machiavelli at 550—Reflections on his contribution to

management, marketing, and public affairs

With the U.K. Elections upon us and manoeuvring for the

U.S. Presidential Elections in November 2020 already started, it is

time to reflect on power. It is always good to call upon Machiavelli to

help make sense of the issues and people in the political arena. It is

550 years since Niccolo Machiavelli was born in Florence in 1469 of a

very old Tuscan family. The young Machiavelli had a vigorous human-

ist education, was taught Latin by good teachers, and had access to

the best of classical history and ideas. Little is known about the rest of

his life until at the surprisingly young age of 29 in 1498, he was

recognised by the Signory for his administrative talents and was elec-

ted to the responsible post of Chancellor of the Second Chancery. He

is also given duties in the Council of the Ten of Liberty and Peace

(formerly Ten of War), which dealt with Florentine foreign affairs.

During his time in office, his journeys included missions to Louis

XII and to the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian in Austria; he was

with Cesare Borgia in the Romagna; and after watching the Papal

election of 1503, he accompanied the newly elected Pope, Julius II, on

his first campaign of conquest against Perugia and Bologna. In 1507,

as a Chancellor of the recently appointed Nove di Milizia, he

organised an infantry force, which fought at the capture of Pisa in

1509. Three years later, this force was defeated by the Holy League

at Prato and the Medici returned to power in Florence. Machiavelli

was almost immediately excluded from public life as a previous holder

of high office under the former republican regime, where he had built

up a number of powerful enemies who were determined he should

not retain his post.

After being falsely implicated in a plot against the Medici, he is

imprisoned in the Bargello and hideously tortured. He maintains his

innocence and is eventually granted an amnesty on the election of the

new pope, Leo X, (Cardinal dei Medici) and retires to his farm six miles

away from Florence just outside San Casiano, where he lives with his

wife and six children and concentrates on study and writing. For much

of the rest of his life, his movements are restricted by one regime or

another because of his past. He desperately wants to return to gov-

ernment service to serve Florence and his countrymen, “If only to roll

stones”(Letters to Vettori) but never regains public office. At

43, Machiavelli's public career had ended, but his work as a writer, for

which he is celebrated, was just beginning.

He wrote The Prince in just a few months in 1513, in which he

attacks “the writers”whose inconsistent moralism allows them to

admire great deeds but not the cruel acts necessary to accomplish

them. The Prince was never published during its author's lifetime, and

although circulating quite widely in manuscript form, it seems to have

caused little if any controversy during Machiavelli's life. In 1532,

5 years after Machiavelli's death, it was publishedin Rome. In 1559, all

of Machiavelli's works are condemnedand placed on the Papal Index.

It is his continuing reputation and the influence of The Prince

which has resulted in the use of the Machiavellian theme by manage-

ment commentators such as Jay (1967), Calhoon (1969), Shea (1988),

Curry (1995), McAlpine (1992 and 1997), Harris, Lock, and Rees

(2000), and Harris (2013).

We will be hosting a major symposium on Machiavelli's contribu-

tion to leadership, management and understanding power in

September 2020 in Italy in 2020, and we would welcome potential

contributions from authors for this event as we reflect on his great

works and development of political leadership and management

knowledge. Expressions of interest and ideas for the symposium

would be most welcome.

This issue of the Journal of Public Affairs is a general one and

includes a quality cross-section of best thinking and research from

around the globe.

Phil Harris

Executive Director, Business Research Institute, Westminster Chair of

Marketing and Public Affairs, University of Chester, Chester, England, UK

Correspondence

Phil Harris, Business Research Institute, Westminster Chair of

Marketing and Public Affairs, University of Chester, Chester, England

UK. CH1 4BJ.

Email: p.harris@chester.ac.uk

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2056

J Public Affairs. 2019;19:e2056. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 1of1

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2056