Political success and moral dilemma: from the middle ages to modern era

The paper deals with the history of moral interpretations of politics from the Middle Ages to Modern Era. The author focuses on the analysis of immoral political practices in the above-mentioned period. The changes in the ways this problem was discussed became a prerequisite for understanding state and politics as a societal field with a specific set of rules that was autonomous in relation to individuals moral values. The epoch of the break from the medieval to modern patterns of political thought was the period of reconsidering both ancient and mediaeval (popular and scholastic) common interpretations of moral aspects in governor activities. Besides, a concept of professionalism in politics was developed. The research showed that the critics of the 16th-17th-century Machiavellianism played an influential role in this transition.