Machiavellian Politics: Frank Lautenberg's Senate Career
This essay applies Niccolò Machiavelli's political theory to the Senate career of New Jersey senator Frank Lautenberg, arguing that Lautenberg operated in a predominantly Machiavellian fashion. The paper examines two pivotal moments: his 1988 reelection campaign against Pete Dawkins, in which he deployed aggressive negative advertising to crush a superior opponent, and his 2002 return to the Senate following retirement. Drawing on Machiavelli's advice about "well-used cruelties" and gaining favor from both the populace and the elite, the essay demonstrates how Lautenberg concentrated his ruthlessness early, then shifted to outwardly benevolent governance to sustain his political dominance in a state with volatile electoral tendencies.
- Introduction: Lautenberg and Machiavellian Politics: Thesis: Lautenberg operated in a Machiavellian fashion
- Lautenberg's Key Policy Areas: Overview of Lautenberg's transportation and security priorities
- The 1988 Reelection Campaign Against Pete Dawkins: Lautenberg faced long odds against star Republican candidate
- Applying Machiavelli's Cruelty Doctrine to the 1988 Race: Negative ads as concentrated political cruelty
- The 2002 Return: Civic Principality and Popular Favor: Lautenberg cultivated elite and popular support for easier return
- Conclusion: A Mostly Machiavellian Career: Career success explained through Machiavellian theory
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What makes this paper effective
- It anchors every analytical claim to direct quotations from Machiavelli's The Prince, creating a tight theoretical framework that disciplines the argument throughout.
- It uses a clear two-case structure — the 1988 campaign and the 2002 return — that allows systematic application of the same Machiavellian principles across different contexts.
- The paper is appropriately hedged, acknowledging that Lautenberg may have been genuinely committed to his policy positions while still arguing those positions served a Machiavellian function.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates applied theoretical analysis: rather than summarizing Machiavelli abstractly, the author maps specific passages from The Prince onto specific historical events, showing how a political text can function as an analytical lens. The use of the "well-used cruelties" concept to explain the shift from aggressive campaigning to benevolent governance is a strong example of theory-driven interpretation of real political behavior.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens with a thesis establishing Lautenberg as "mostly Machiavellian," then provides policy context before the main analysis. Two body sections apply distinct Machiavellian principles — concentrated cruelty and civic favor-seeking — to the two elections. A synthesis paragraph ties both cases together before the conclusion restates the argument and confirms the thesis. The works cited page follows MLA format.
Introduction: Lautenberg and Machiavellian Politics
Nearly all politicians, at one time or another, have engaged in behavior that might be described as Machiavellian, and Frank Lautenberg, senator of New Jersey, is no exception. In fact, examining Lautenberg's career leads one to the inevitable conclusion that he operated in a mostly Machiavellian fashion. In both instances where Lautenberg entered the Senate, he demonstrated a capacity for ruthlessness and an astute ability to manipulate the political climate for his own ends. When Lautenberg was first reelected to the Senate in 1988, he won following a blistering campaign in which he followed Machiavelli's advice to get all of the dirty work out of the way so that he could spend the rest of his time in power without having to exercise overt aggression and hostility. When Lautenberg returned to the Senate in 2002 after a short-lived retirement, he was able to use his previous work as a means to deftly manipulate both the necessary party powers and the general electorate.
Examining these two points in Lautenberg's career in detail will help demonstrate why one may comfortably call Lautenberg mostly Machiavellian. Even if some of his time actually serving in the Senate does not appear Machiavellian at first glance, the means by which he attained that position — and thus the crucial aspects of his career — are unarguably Machiavellian.
Lautenberg's Key Policy Areas
Before investigating Lautenberg's elections in more detail, it will be useful to briefly discuss some of the policies that were most important during his political career. Though he is generally considered "one of the Senate's more liberal voices," the two issues he seems to have focused on most are transportation and the functioning of the national security state, with these two areas often overlapping — as in the case of aviation safety and security (Times Topics, "Frank R. Lautenberg"). He has been a notable supporter of restrictions on gun ownership, especially for those on the terror watch list or no-fly list, and of public infrastructure improvement projects such as "banning smoking on domestic flights," enacting "a passenger bill of rights," and developing a possible New Jersey-to-New York rail line ("Senator Lautenberg: On The Issues" 2011).
In 2011, Lautenberg authored a report entitled Firearms, Explosives and Terrorists, arguing, among other things, that "current gun laws in the United States only increase the risk of a commando-style attack" because "known or suspected terrorists are not prohibited from purchasing" the kinds of guns and explosives most frequently used in such attacks, which are widely available in the United States (Lautenberg 9). That same year, he had "been trying to revive the idea of a trans-Hudson train tunnel ever since Gov. Chris Christie [halted] construction on the one that New Jersey Transit started to build in 2010" (Times Topics, "Frank R. Lautenberg").
It is worth noting these key areas of Lautenberg's interest because they serve as part of his overall maneuvering. This is not to say that Lautenberg was disingenuous in his support for these issues, but rather that they helped to get him elected regardless of his personal feelings, and thus must be considered alongside his larger political efforts.
The 1988 Reelection Campaign Against Pete Dawkins
Lautenberg was first elected to the Senate in 1982 following the resignation of Nicholas Brady, who had been appointed to complete the term of disgraced senator Harrison Williams. Lautenberg only won the 1982 election "by the smallest of margins over Republican Millicent Fenwick, even though he had outspent her $6 million to $2 million," and his 1988 reelection seemed unlikely due to the fact that he was running against Pete Dawkins — "first captain of the Corps of Cadets at West Point; football co-captain and winner of the Heisman Trophy, president of the class of 1959, Rhodes Scholar at Oxford," a veteran with "military service in Korea and Vietnam," for which he won "the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit, and two Bronze Stars" (Swint 71–72). In short, "Dawkins was a 'dream' candidate for the Republicans in 1988," while Lautenberg was struggling with "public approval ratings in the forties" and an inability to appear dynamic compared to someone with such a prestigious résumé (Swint 71).
Conclusion: A Mostly Machiavellian Career
Frank Lautenberg's career may be described as "mostly Machiavellian" because of the way in which he used negative campaign ads early on in order to secure his hold on power, before shifting toward more outwardly benevolent means of maintaining that power. Taking Machiavelli's advice to commit all the cruelties one needs at once rather than piecemeal over a longer period, Lautenberg ran a vicious campaign against Pete Dawkins that relied almost exclusively on his ability to paint Dawkins as an opportunist and a charlatan, effectively using Dawkins' own robust résumé against him.
Having solidified his hold on power by winning his first reelection, Lautenberg proceeded to curry the favor of the two groups whose support Machiavelli sees as necessary for ruling any participatory form of government: the general populace and the corporate elite whose money ends up funding the majority of political activity in America. In this way, Lautenberg protected himself from any resentment born out of his earlier negative campaign tactics and successfully rebranded himself as a reliable stalwart of participatory democracy.
Works Cited
Anonymous. "Frank R. Lautenberg." Times Topics. The New York Times, 21 Sep 2011. Web. 5 Oct 2011.
Machiavelli, Niccolò. The Prince. London: Grant Richards, 1903.
Lautenberg, Frank. United States. Firearms, Explosives and Terrorists: A Looming Threat — A Major U.S. Vulnerability. Washington: DIANE Publishing, 2011. Print.
"Senator Lautenberg: On The Issues." Senator Frank Lautenberg. The United States Senate, 2011. Web. 5 Oct 2011.
Swint, Kerwin. Mudslingers: The Twenty-Five Dirtiest Political Campaigns of All Time. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., 2008.
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