Everybody seems to know Machiavelli as advocate of cynical use of power. Common but wrong: what is understood under „Machiavellianism“ is a distortion of Machiavelli’s political thoughts expressed not only in Il Principe but also in his main work Discorsi and other political writings - often again misinterpreted as expressing contradictory thoughts. In reality, as Münkler writes, both are reflections about the best actions to be taken in response to particular historical situations and times within a cyclic perception of history in which rise and fall inevitably follow each other during the existence of a state. Only the duration in which a state remains at its peak and the speed of its recovery from its nadir is determined by the political action taken. The right political actions are solely determined by their efficiency given the conditions and cannot be guided by ethics in order to be effective. For Machiavelli the self-preservation and stability of the state was of the highest priority as the only guarantee against the corrupting tendencies inherent in human nature even if it was not always possible to reconcile politics and morals.
However, as Münkler states, Machiavelli has never written an apology of immorality in politics as he has been accused of again and again. Machiavelli’s lasting importance lies in first raising political question, explicitly and implicitly, which still remain unanswered.

Niccolò Machiavelli was born 1469 in Florence. He held important political positions and only after being forcibly retired and banned in 1512 by the Medicis he found time for his political-philosophical writings.

Münkler discusses and places Machiavelli in the context of the political and economic realities facing Florence in the second half of the 15th century as well as within the intellectual history of political thought from Antiquity and Medieval ages. This is an immensely thorough work. It takes into consideration, it seems, all important relevant literature (more than 500 sources are listed) until its publication in 1982. I wonder why an english edition is missing … (I-21) ( )