This research addresses the issue of state violence as a complex philosophical and political phenomenon, by tracing its conceptual development between two major intellectual schools: the political realism of Niccolò Machiavelli and the critical rationalism of Jacqueline Rose.The study begins by analyzing Machiavelli’s vision, as one of the earliest thinkers to regard violence as a legitimate tool of governance, necessary for preserving the state and maintaining order. In his renowned work The Prince, Machiavelli presents a pragmatic conception that legitimizes the use of violence whenever the state's interest demands it, thus creating a decisive rupture with the idealistic ethical frameworks that characterized the pre-Renaissance period.The research then moves to deconstruct Jacqueline Rose’s conceptualization, which approaches state violence from a contemporary critical perspective, focusing on the psychological and social dimensions of violence and the ways it is rationalized within modern rational structures. Rose argues that violence exercised by the state is no longer a temporary political necessity, but has become deeply embedded within rational systems themselves, making resistance to it more complex and profound.Moreover, the research highlights the major transformations in the concept of violence throughout this long intellectual journey: from being a politically necessary physical act to becoming a system rooted in modern cultural and political structures.
Abdullah Hassani (Mon,) studied this question.