Ideals and realities: Renaissance state communication in Machiavelli's The Prince and More's Utopia

Communication plays very different parts in two of the most influential political works of the last 500 years, The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527) and Utopia by Sir Thomas More (1478–1535). The contrasts between More's carefully controlled and Machiavelli's unconstrained political communication shed light on the communication issues and practices of their times, some of which may still figure in relations between state and citizen.

► Two of the most influential political works of the last five centuries are deeply influenced by their treatments of communication.
► Niccolo Machiavelli viewed strategic communication as a tool to be freely and unscrupulously exploited by rulers in uncertain times.
► Thomas More tightly controlled political and social communication platforms for Utopia to function successfully.
► Neither approach is necessarily more ethical than the other.