Page 74 - DPOL201_WESTERN_POLITICAL_THOUGHT_ENGLISH

Western Political Thought

Notes To comprehend the full importance of Machiavelli’s writings and their context, it is important to
understand the series of cultural, economic, social and political changes that began in the fourteenth
century called the Renaissance. Its immediate impact was in Italy, which gradually spread to the
rest of Europe by the late fifteenth century. The Renaissance signified a rebirth of the human spirit
in the attainment of liberty, self-confidence and optimism. In contradiction to the medieval view,
which had envisaged the human being as fallen and depraved in an evil world with the devil at
the centre, the Renaissance captured the Greek ideal of the essential goodness of the individual,
the beauty and glory of the earth, the joy of existence, the insignificance of the supernatural and
the importance of the present, as compared to an irrecoverable past and an uncertain future. This
return to a pre-Christian attitude towards humans, God and Nature found expression in all aspects
of human endeavour and creativity. Humanism, affirming the dignity and excellence of the human
being, became the basis of comprehending the modern world. In contrast to the medieval Christian
stress on asceticism, poverty, humility, misery and the worthlessness of the earthly person,
Humanism defended the freedom of the human spirit and knowledge. The Renaissance signalled
the breakdown of a unified Christian society.
At the centre of the “Renaissance was the emergence of the new human, an ambitious restless
individual, motivated by his self-interest, seeking glory and fame. Self-realization and joy, rather
than renunciation and asceticism, were seen as the true ends of human existence and education.
Self-fulfilment was no longer viewed as being achieved by repressing natural faculties and emotions.
Jacob Burckhardt (1818–1897) in his classic, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860) pointed
out that it was the conception of the new human, the individual motivated by fame and glory, self-
actualization and happiness, rather than self-denial and religious faith that formed the essence of
the Renaissance. The spirit of individualism and the cult of privacy led to the growth of self-
assertion and ushered in the idea of the highest development of the individual.
Alongside the development of the modern individual was the beginning of the modern state. The
idea of the modern state, omnipotent and omni-competent, was worked out. The prince had to
take charge of everything—preservation of public buildings and churches, maintenance of the
municipal police, drainage of the marshes, ensuring the supply of corn, levying taxes and convincing
the people of their necessity, supporting the sick and destitute, lending support to distinguished
intellectuals and scholars on whose verdict rested his fame for the years to come. More than
anybody else, it was Machiavelli who could understand the dynamics of this modern state and the
modern individual.
Equally important were the end of the clerical monopoly and the replacement of papal supremacy
by secular, sovereign, independent states, each with its own national culture, identity and language.
The nation state came into existence and its success was determined not by religious or chivalric,
but by political criteria. Explorations and voyages led to geographical discoveries, altering the
perceptions regarding the world. The medievalists had viewed the universe with a flat earth at the
centre, hell beneath it and heaven as its canopy. The discoveries of Christopher Columbus (1451–
1506) and Vasco da Gama (1469–1524) enlarged the geographical horizons beyond the
Mediterranean basin and Europe. A new world map magnified the view of the educated.
New geographical discoveries opened up new vistas of trade and religion. This led to growth in
commerce and economic development as the basis of modern capitalism. Cities and urban centres
emerged. Rational methods of book keeping and accounting and complex banking operations
mushroomed, eroding the taboo on moneymaking, entrepreneurship and the profit motive.
Education, science and humanism ended clerical monopoly, relegating religion to the private
space. The invention of printing, the establishment of libraries and universities increased and
spread literacy, and revived an interest in Latin classics.
In Europe, it was Italy that experienced the onslaughts of these new commercial, entrepreneurial
and economic forces. All these reflected in the political and societal organization of Italy. Politically,

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