Machiavelli's Influence on Modern Political Science
From Hobbes to game theory, how Machiavelli's method of studying politics shaped the modern discipline.
The Founder of Modern Political Science?
The claim that Machiavelli founded modern political science is debatable but defensible. What is undeniable is that he introduced a method that became central to the discipline: the systematic, empirical study of political behavior as it actually occurs, separated from theological and moral prescriptions about how it should occur.
Before Machiavelli, the study of politics was a branch of moral philosophy or theology. The question was always 'What is the just ruler?' or 'What is the best regime according to divine or natural law?' Machiavelli replaced these questions with 'How do rulers actually gain and lose power?' and 'What institutional designs produce stability and liberty?' This shift — from normative to empirical, from prescription to description — is the methodological foundation of political science as a modern discipline.
This does not mean Machiavelli had no normative commitments. He clearly preferred republics to principalities and liberty to tyranny. But he insisted that understanding politics required first observing it clearly, without the distortion of wishful thinking — and that prescriptions built on accurate observation would be more effective than those built on moral ideals alone.