Niccolo Machiavelli (1469 - 1527)

Poet, raconteur, diplomat, historian, military and political theorist, and secretary to the short-lived Republic of Florence (1498 - 1512), Italian Niccolo Machiavelli was much more than the author of The Prince, although this work, written in 1512 - 1513 but published posthumously in 1531, remains the centerpiece of his political legacy.

The most controversial claim against The Prince is that it is at odds with the admiration for Roman republicanism exemplified in Machiavellis Discourse on Livy (1532), but a careful examination reveals that in both works Machiavelli highlights the impossibly corrosive nature of monarchical rule, leaving republicanism as the only alternative. As he explicitly states in his Discourse on Remodeling the Government of Florence (1519 - 1520), a wise prince should protect his family and friends while he lives, yet provide for a republican government to assume control on his passing, thereby offering him temporal glory and eternal life in the histories of the state. That he offered eternal life to a sitting pope is only one example of Machiavelli's sly wit. Like his republican sentiments, it is rarely (outside of the Discourses) in plain sight, but the details are never buried so deep that a careful reader could fail to discover their fresh and irreverent bite.

Born in Florence to an established but poor family with no obvious political connections, Machiavelli's greatest political triumph - how an underage, political nonentity managed to become second secretary to the Republic of Florence - remains concealed from history. His skills as a political observer and diplomat kept him in office, but it was not until his banishment at the hands of the returning Medici family that he became a serious author, producing The Prince and Discourses; several plays, including Mandragola, which is considered a centerpiece of Italian drama; a military discourse favored by Napoleon; and a history of Florence completed in 1525 for the Medici Pope Clement VII that signaled Machiavelli’s return to the favor of Florence’s ruling family. However, by 1527 the Medici were overthrown again, and the new government, suspicious of Machiavelli's ties to the previous rulers, rejected his offer of service. Machiavelli died with his dream of an independent republic in ruins once again.

Although they are unable to agree on its underlying purpose and generally unwilling to endorse its precepts, nearly every critic agrees The Prince is a masterful composition. Whatever the focus of contemporary critical controversy, the historical fact remains that with it Machiavelli dislocated the stable political morality of the Middle Ages while at the same time exposing the public hypocrisy of the emerging mercantile elite. Political theorists and actors alike would never again be able to pretend that a political realm could exist free from the "dirty hands" of politics.

Karl Marx (1818 - 1883)

Karl Marx was the most important of all theorists of socialism. He was not a professional philosopher, although he completed a doctorate in philosophy. His life was devoted to radical political activity, journalism and theoretical studies in history and political economy.

Known as the father of socialism, political theorist and economist Karl Heinrich Marx was born in the Rhineland area of Prussia (Germany) near the French border. Marx's Jewish family converted to Christianity and moved to England where he became a radical. In England, Marx met philosopher Friedrich Engels, and the two became close friends and collaborators. In 1848, after Marx returned to England from a failed revolution in Germany, he and Engels published The Communist Manifesto, in which they provided a rationale for class revolution. Marx ultimately produced over 100 works.

Marx subsequently turned his attention to political economy, publishing Contribution to a Critique of Political Economy in 1859. He and Engels further articulated Marxist theory in Das Kapital, published in three volumes.

Although Marx's ideas led to revolution in economic thought and to the development of socialist/communist governments in parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America, his ideas were not original. Marx was directly influenced by German econo­mist Georg W. F. Hegel and particularly by Hegel's contention that history provides answers to all philosophical questions. Marx used Hegelian theory to develop his argument that the mode of production is responsible for all the ills of given socie­ties, which are prone to repeating the same mistakes throughout history. He presented socialism as the answer to the problem.

Marx lived during an intense period of industrialisation, and he wrote to discredit raging capitalism and to refute classical liberal thought. Ironically, he was heavily influenced by some of the British thinkers he rejected. Marx owed particular debts to philosopher John Locke and economist David Ricardo. Locke's contention that workers should own the fruits of their labor provided the foundation for Marxian theory.

Although Marx accepted that worldwide revolution might be possible to overthrow capitalism, he believed it would be unnecessary. He insisted that alienation from the capitalists (the bourgeoisie) would eventually cause the workers (the proletariat) to rebel against the capitalist system. The result, according to Marx, would be the destruction of capitalism and the creation of a temporary state that would wither away after establishing a worker-controlled market.

Karl Marx envisioned his socialist revolution taking place in his homeland of Germany, but it was in Russia that his ideas bore the most fruit. In 1917 Bolshevik revolutionaries overthrew the monarchy. After the Bolsheviks were absorbed into the Communist Party under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin, Marxist-Leninism provided the foundation for the creation of an all-powerful state. Contrary to Marxist theory, however, the communist state refused to wither away. In 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was created. Communism continued to expand, aided to a large extent by concessions made during peace talks at the end of World War II (1939 - 1945).The resulting cold war between democratic and communist nations lasted until 1991, when Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika precipitated the dissolution of the Soviet bloc, leveling a death blow to Marxist-Leninism in most of the world.