Machiavelli's The Prince As A Republican Form Of Government

In a work written by Machiavelli called The Prince, there are many ideas he believes should be part of a government. The United States today is a Federal Republic. This means that it is a “federation of states that have a republican form of government”. Being a republican government means that the power of the country lies with the people and their elected representatives. This essay will be tackling the topic of whether or not the ideas that Machiavelli stated should or should not be implemented into our own system of government today. The first topic that will be tackled is whether or not a leader, or country, should be stingy. For this topic Machiavelli was said that if his “economy makes his income adequate… he can carry through enterprises

What Machiavelli is saying in this quote is that at the beginning it may seem like the leader is being stingy because he is taxing his people but at the end of the road when troubles come the leader will have the money from being stingy to help pay for all the work that will be done to get out of the situation that they are in. Another thing that Machiavelli says is “as you practice it… to escape poverty” (Cunningham 35). What Machiavelli means here is that one reason you would practice liberality is to escape poverty. I think that this idea should be implemented into own government because it was proven to work in our country’s past. In the article Which Strategy Really Ended the Great Depression by Burton Folsom he says, “Yes, government would need to run large deficits, but economic stability was society’s reward” (Folsom 1). The Great Depression was a devastating period of time for America. Since the country was out of money, the government used its money to get the economy back up and running so the country could go back to how it was before the depression. If Machiavelli’s idea is implemented into our government then we will be able to get out of another

For this topic Machiavelli says, “A wise price, then, is not troubled about a reproach for cruelty by which he keeps his subjects united and loyal” (Cunningham 35). Here Machiavelli is saying that being cruel is fine as long as the people under him are still under his control. This idea that Machiavelli presents should not be implemented into our government because it would make other nations view us like we view North Korea. In the article Why Do North Koreans Hate Us? By Mehdi Hasan, he refers to the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un as a “brutal and sadistic” leader. Although the country itself may be under his rule it does not mean that all the countries around him will think of him the same as the people under him. Another thing that Machiavelli says is, “those executions that come from the prince harm individuals only” (Cuningham 35). This is also not true because an article from the death penalty information center says that “Nearly 78% of those surveyed said that having the death penalty in a state does not lower the murder rate”. This proves that for the majority even if there is a death penalty it does not lower the chances for crime occurring. The fear factor of the penalty is