The Reason of State

The Reason of State (Italian: Della Ragion di Stato) is a work of political philosophy by Italian Jesuit Giovanni Botero. The book first popularised the term Reason of State and became a political 'bestseller', going through 15 Italian editions and translations into Spanish, Latin and French in the late sixteenth and the seventeenth century. Botero's Reason of State was also translated into German as Johannis Boteri Grundlicher Bericht Anordnung guter Polizeien und Regiments (1596). Despite this success on the continent, Botero's Della Ragion di Stato was never published in England. However a little-known contemporary English manuscript translation exists in the British Library. Botero's treatise has been translated into English by P.J. and D.P. Waley with an introduction by D.P. Waley (London, 1956), and, more recently, by Robert Bireley (Cambridge, 2017).

The expression 'reason of state' denotes a way of thinking that about government that does agree fully with Botero's ideas. It emerged at the end of the fifteenth century and remained prevalent until the eighteenth century. Notwithstanding the criticism of Botero on fully amoral statecraft, it refers to the right of rulers to act in ways that go against the dictates of both natural and positive law with the aim of acquiring, preserving, and augmenting the dominion of the state.