The Communist Manifesto, Machiavelli, The Prince, And Locke's Second Treatise On Government

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Throughout history, it can be seen time and time again that rulers have different ways of rule. As expected, rulers may look over to different nations to see what is effective to prevent failures or encourage successes. With different forms of rule comes different thinkers and their take on the current methods of ruling which can be seen in Marx and Engels’ The Communist Manifesto, Machiavelli’s The Prince, and Locke’s Second Treatise on Government. Coming from different periods, it is expected that their perspectives are different. Assessing these works will ease the process of observing the differences between these thinkers and their thoughts on rulers who are above the law or have no morality and their notions of private property in society …show more content…

In Machiavelli’s tenth chapter entitled How the Strength of All Principalities Should Be Measured, he discusses whether a prince constantly requires aid and protection from others and if he has enough resources “to stand on his own when the need arises” and simply advises that if a prince should find himself in a situation where he requires additional aid from outside forces, he should “fortify his city … to have no concern for the surrounding countryside” (Machiavelli, p. 42). By this and what is stated further in the chapter, Machiavelli is essentially stating that it is ideal and important for a ruler to not be hated by his people because if there happens to be a war, the enemy will definitely scorch the earth first to ruin the nation’s supplies to starve them out (and to extend the idea, to stifle their economy). But if the prince reassures the peoples that their land will be recovered and that the war will be over soon, the citizens will not feel such hatred against the prince and blame him for their burnt land even though the damaged property would be due to his actions against his enemies. Therefore, with encouragement from the prince come trust, obedience, and determination from the citizens to rebuild the land. With this, it is evident that Machiavelli believes that property plays a specific role in politics and society. He believes that creating a bridge between these two systems would strengthen the nation as a whole by getting all the individual members of society to work collectively toward a single goal: to create a thriving

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