The Reason of State

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The Reason of State

Title page from the first edition
Author	Giovanni Botero
Original title	Della Ragion di Stato
Language	Italian
Series	None
Subject	Political philosophy
Publisher	appresso i Gioliti
Publication date	1589
Publication place	Italy
Media type	Print

The Reason of State (Italian: Della Ragion di Stato) is a work of political philosophy by Italian Jesuit Giovanni Botero published in 1589. The book first popularised the term "reason of state",^[1][2] which refers to the right of rulers to act in ways that go against the dictates of both natural and positive law, with the overriding aim of acquiring, preserving, and augmenting the dominion of the state to be used for the public welfare.^[3][4] This way of thinking about government morality emerged at the end of the fifteenth century and remained prevalent until the eighteenth century. Botero supports the political role of the Catholic Church and criticizes the amoral methods of statecraft associated with Niccolò Machiavelli. He is one of the first to present economics as an integral aspect of politics.

Della Ragion di Stato was first published in Venice in 1589 and quickly became a political bestseller, going through 15 Italian editions and translations into Spanish, Latin, and French in the late sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, as well as the German edition Johannis Boteri Grundlicher Bericht Anordnung guter Polizeien und Regiments of 1596.^[5] Despite this success on the continent, the book was never published in England. However a little-known contemporary English manuscript translation exists in the British Library.^[6] Botero's treatise has been translated into English by P.J. and D.P. Waley with an introduction by D.P. Waley (London, 1956),^[7] and, more recently, by Robert Bireley (Cambridge, 2017).^[8]

In the dedication of the 1589 edition of The Reason of State, Botero states his determined opposition to machiavellism, to which he traces the corruption of 16th century political discourse.^[9]

However, Botero does adopt some aspects of Machiavelli's thought. For instance, in 1590 Botero added a chapter that advocates all European states join the Republic of Venice in a campaign to oust the Ottoman Empire from Europe.^[10] This appeal mirrors Machiavelli's own call to drive all foreigners out of Italy at the end of The Prince. Botero also expands upon Machiavelli's idea that men, not money, are more important for preserving a political regime. Where for Machiavelli men are crucial as soldiers, Botero proclaims that both a regime's population and its martial abilities are the most crucial resources at a ruler's disposal.^[11]

Botero states his intention to bring to light the surrepetitious discussions of "reasons of state" common in European courts, which were frequently influenced by Niccolò Machiavelli's political thought.^[12] To Macchiavelli's instrumental, amoral principles, Botero presents an opposing Christian reason of state, in which statesmen are responsible before God and their conscience.^[13] He rejects any reasons of state which consistently transgress God's laws.^[3] In stark contrast to Machiavelli, Botero embraces Christianity and the Roman Catholic Church:

The prince must prostrate himself in all humility before the Divine Majesty and acknowledge that from Him proceed the power of a ruler and the obedience of his subjects ... A Christian prince [should not] close the door of his secret council-chamber against Christ and the Gospels and set up a reason of State contrary to God's law, as though it were a rival altar ... So great is the power of religion in government that the state can have no secure foundation without it ... Religion is the mother ... of all the virtues.

— Giovanni Botero, The Reason of State, translated by P.J. Waley and D.P. Waley, New Haven, Yale University Press 1956, p. 63.

Botero asserts that piety, religion and the Church (i.e. Roman Catholicism) are indispensable to any valid reasons of state,^[14] and he considers the Church to be the foundation of virtuous behavior in both the rulers and the ruled. He perceives Islam and Protestant Christianity as threats both to the Church and to good governance in Europe.^[15] Botero believes that a political regime's religious heterogeneity will lead to civil war, as occurred in many European countries of his day. He suggests that Christian rulers promote uniformity of belief by levying special taxes upon religious dissenters and new denominations, and prohibiting them from public speaking and assembly, or bearing arms.^[16] He advocates that in extreme cases, Christian rulers should uproot and transport entire populations of religious dissenters, similar to the policies of the contemporary Ottoman Empire against religious minorities and of the ancient Assyrian Empire against Israel.^[17]

Botero's work ended with a remarkable special treatise, Delle Cause della Grandezza della Città (On the Causes of the Greatness of Cities).^[18] He weighs the causes of the growth of cities along the same lines as Seneca, and anticipates much of the theory of Malthus. He shows that emigration to colonies does not depopulate the mother countries, and he investigates the general circumstances which limit and determine the growth of cities.^[19]

According to Botero, royal power has moral limits. Relying on Aquinas and the School of Salamanca, he maintains that the people entrust their king with certain powers to ensure the common defense and prosperity: "A people must bestow upon their ruler such powers as are necessary for him maintain laws among them and defend them against the violence of their enemies."^[20] The king, for his part, must not exceed these given powers, and "must not oppress his subjects with new taxes disproportionate to their means nor permit greedy ministers to increase the amount of ordinary taxation or to extort it by cruel methods."^[20] Echoing early Jesuit monarchomach arguments, Botero maintains that "when a people is burdened beyond its resources, either they leave the country or turn against the ruler or go over to an enemy power."^[20]

• Botero, Giovanni (1590). Della ragione di stato, libri dieci. Di Giouanni Botero Benese, reuisti dall'autore, e arricchiti in più luoghi di discorsi, e di cose memorabili etc (in Italian). Rome: presso Vincenzio Pellagallo. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
• Botero, Giovanni (2017). Robert Bireley (ed.). The Reason of State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781316493953. ISBN 9781316493953.