4. There is a widely held opinion that the chief merit
for having definitely fixed and popularized the modern
meaning of the term “State” belongs to Niccolò
Machiavelli. This opinion is certainly in great measure
justified, but it should not be accepted without some
reservations. In fact, the word Stato had certainly
entered the Italian vocabulary of politics before
Machiavelli's times. And even by Machiavelli the word
was still used in different meanings which can be traced
to preceding linguistic usage. The word itself, philolo-
gists tell us, was derived from the Latin term status,
a neutral expression meaning the condition or way of
existence of a thing. As such, it could be used also to
describe the condition of a person (it still survives in
that sense in English: e.g., status, estate) and that of a
class (as in the phrases the “Estates of the Realm,” États
généraux, Tiers État). A more strictly political use of
the word was the one we have already encountered
in the Roman sources, where status rei publicae is used
to indicate the legal structure of the community: it
is from here, very probably, that the Italian word
Stato
is derived. Even so, however, the word was not entirely
devoid of ambiguity, since we find it used indiscrimi-
nately to indicate both the actual exercise of power—
the government—and the people or the territory over
which that power was exercised.
If we keep all these different usages in mind, we
are not surprised that Machiavelli should not always
be coherent in his use of the word “State.” All the
meanings we have listed so far can be traced in his
works, sometimes even within the same context. In The
Prince, however, where Machiavelli's language and
style are more plain and direct, and less hampered by
literary tradition than in most of his other writings,
we find the clearest evidence of the final adoption of
the term “State” to indicate an independent orga-
nization endowed with the capacity for exerting and
controlling the use of force over certain people and
within a given territory. It is in this sense that the word
came to be inserted in the political vocabulary of all
modern nations, although in some European countries
it had to compete with other terms derived from earlier
usage, or transferred from Latin to the vernacular. Thus
for example, commonwealth in English and république
in French continued to be favored for a while, and
were no doubt much closer to the Latin respublica than
“State.” It is only with Hobbes, always very careful
and precise in his use of words, that we find the three
terms, civitas, commonwealth, and State, definitely
equated. No doubt, in the course of the centuries that
followed Machiavelli and Hobbes, the notion of the
State was going to be enlarged and enriched with many
new elements. The most important of all was perhaps
the idea of nationality, which provided an emotional
basis for the new Nation-state. In view of the passionate
appeal to Italian patriotism which closes Machiavelli's
short political treatise, many authors are inclined to
consider him also on this count one of the forerunners
of the modern idea of the State.
In Machiavelli's thought, however, the idea of the
State was bound to be deeply influenced by his sharply
pessimistic and realistic view of human nature in poli-
tics. Force, and force alone, was to him the constituent
element of the State. Indeed, force seems to be not
only the condition of existence, but also the ultimate
justification of the State, since it is force that in the
long run creates authority. Machiavelli had primarily
before his eyes the petty Italian tyrannies of his day,
which had no solid foundation in old loyalties, and
where the only element of cohesion was the virtù of
the leader, the Prince, and his ability in wielding effec-
tive control of both internal and external matters.
Hardly any mention is made of law in Machiavelli's
short political treatise; it is only in the much lengthier
Discourses on Livy that the importance of sound legal
institutions (buoni ordini) is adequately stressed, and
characteristically enough, the reference is to the
Roman republic of old and only cursorily to contem-
porary Europe.
