Professional Ethics for Politicians?

Abstract

In The Prince Machiavelli famously claimed that a ruler ‘must learn how not to be virtuous’, adding that he should ‘make use of this or not according to need’.¹ It seems natural to understand Machiavelli here as using ‘virtue’ in the sense of ‘conventional virtue’: clearly, Machiavelli considers that in certain situations some forms of behaviour that are, in general, praiseworthy merit condemnation in a prince, and conversely, action that ordinarily is vicious may count as virtuous for the prince. There is a morality that is appropriate to princes that can and, on occasion, does come into conflict with ordinary morality. When such a clash occurs, the good prince is precisely the one who acts according to the dictates of princely, rather than conventional, morality.