This mode of governing is associated with the instrumentalisation of law and selective enforcement of rules to achieve political objectives and produce “truth,” rather than upholding a neutral and abstract framework of legal rules. It is a mode of governing that originated at the dawn of political modernity, the principles of which were set out in Machiavelli’s ‘The Prince’.
The Prince is a political treatise written by Niccolò Machiavelli in 1513 and first published in 1532. It serves as a guide for political action based on history and Machiavelli’s own experience as a statesman in Florence. The treatise discusses how to acquire power, create a state and maintain it. The book’s content, which includes advice on lying, murder and manipulation, has made it infamous and has led to the term “Machiavellian” being used to describe political manoeuvres marked by cunning, duplicity or bad faith. Using concepts described in The Prince, British legal scholar and writer David McGrogan describes the political theory behind what is happening in the UK today. The following is a summary, with added context, of his article titled ‘Law and the British Regime: How two-tier justice produces an ‘effectual truth’’....<<<Read More>>>...
