Over decades and with the evolution of different political systems, the world has come across innumerable charismatic leaders. Despite of in which century they became preeminent, they all had some particular traits that were common among each great leader Leadership is defined as ‘the process in which an individual influences the group of individuals to attain a common goal.’ Niccolo Machiavelli's, "The Prince" has played a significant role in highlighting the traits of a great leader.
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), was born in the state of Florence in Italy. Machiavelli rose to power when the Lorenzo Medici’s successor was exiled by the French. It is ironic that it was because of the French that he rose to power and it was the French who were responsible for his imprisonment and exile. Even though Machiavelli was exiled he was still lived a comfortable life in a small estate, he was also employed for diplomatic missions occasionally. However Machiavelli’s desire to get back to his post never came through. Even after the collapse of the Medici, Machiavelli never got his position back. While under the Medici rule of power, Machiavelli attempted to seduce the Medici with The Prince. He wrote about the necessary qualities required for a prince to succeed, based in the knowledge of the citizens of the era. Unfortunately the book was not published until five years after his death.
Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince is a basically a list of controvertible attributes of a great leader. Machiavelli does compares good attribute to bad ones. In his comparisons he points out that although some traits are considered honorable qualities of a prince, they are the ones that harm the authority of the prince the most. Machiavelli explains how it’...
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...onesty is essential, it is not always the best option. Sometimes the truth can be a liability. If exposed, it could cause panic and mayhem amongst the same people who sought after it. A great leader needs to know how to keep the people calm and collective. The leader needs to prevent chaos amongst his/her people and sometimes that requires the leader to delude the public and keep them content. This kind of treatment is necessary because it is not the citizen’s job to be responsible for the whole society; it is the leader’s responsibility to do so.
Adding to that quality is confidence, and it’s a quality that every great leader requires. A great leader should desire to be assertive and confident; confidence in a leader doesn’t only make the leader look more appealing but also inspires trust. A confident leader has the ability to rally his/her followers to any cause.
Niccolò Machiavelli was a man who lived during the fourteen and fifteen hundreds in Florence, Italy, and spent part of his life imprisoned after the Medici princes returned to power. He believed that he should express his feelings on how a prince should be through writing and became the author of “The Qualities of a Prince.” In his essay, he discusses many points on how a prince should act based on military matters, reputation, giving back to the people, punishment, and keeping promises. When writing his essay, he follows his points with examples to back up his beliefs. In summary, Machiavelli’s “The Qualities of a Prince,” provides us with what actions and behaviors that a prince should have in order to maintain power and respect.
Niccolo Machiavelli lived in Florence, Italy in the 1400’s. The country of Italy was divided into city-states that had their own leaders, but all pledged alliance to their king. In time in which great leaders were needed in order to help the development of a city-state and country, Machiavelli had a theory that man needed a leader to control them. In his book The Prince, he speaks of the perfect leader.
We view The Prince as a guide for political power plays and remains a polarizing piece of literature that still guides politics today. However, much of what Machiavelli refers to in The Prince is out of date and doesn’t apply to the leaders of the United States. In some ways, The Prince helps guide those involved in politics because to be involved you must be ruthless and unforgiving, however, The Prince was written at a different time in history, when rulers used military might to obtain
The most astounding aspect of The Prince is Machiavelli’s view that princes may indeed, be cruel and dishonest if their ultimate aim is for the good of the state. It is not only acceptable but necessary to lie, to use torture, and to walk over other states and cities. Machiavellianism is defined as “A political doctrine of Machiavelli, which denies the relevance of morality in political affairs and holds that craft and deceit are justified in pursuing and maintaining political power (Def.)” This implies that in the conquest for power, the ends justify the means. This is the basis of Machiavellianism. The priority for the power holder is to keep the security of the state regardless of the morality of the means. He accepts that these things are in and of themselves morally wrong, but he points out that the consequences of failure, the ruin of states and the destruction of cities, can be far worse. Machiavelli strongly emphasizes that princes should not hesitate to use immoral methods to achieve power, if power is necessary for security and survival.
Machiavelli believes that a government should be very structured, controlled, and powerful. He makes it known that the only priorities of a prince are war, the institutions, and discipline. His writings describes how it is more important for a prince to be practical than moral. This is shown where he writes, "in order to maintain the state he is often obliged to act against his promise, against charity, against humanity, and against religion" (47). In addition, Machiavelli argues that a prince may have to be cunning and deceitful in order to maintain political power. He takes the stance that it is better for the prince to be feared than loved. His view of how a government should run and his unethical conduct are both early signs of dictatorship.
Machiavelli discusses assertive and bold ideas in “The Prince,” revealing his radical and courageous nature. His treatise is deceptively self-soliciting, because he disguises his extreme notions behind a veil of feigned expertise. His frank approach makes him appear confident and deserving of the utmost respect; however, he cautiously humbles himself by pouring immense flattery for the ruling prince into his work and, in doing so, assures protection for himself and his notorious ideas.
Niccolo Machiavelli was born in Florence, Italy in 1469 to a middleclass family. The time in which Machiavelli lived Italy as a country was not united but divide and split into little providences and republics. He latter became responsible for the Florentine militia against the Medici government and rule. When the Medici power reclaimed Florence Machiavelli was arrested for conspiracy he was tortured and then banished from Florence. During his banishment he wrote the book The Prince in 1513 which is dedicated to the new prince of Florence Lorenzo De Medici. The book was a discourse to the prince on how to run a country and also a way Machiavelli can get a job working in politics again.
Many empirical things can often still be debated and refuted by experts, but there is a general admittance to the idea that power is the root of many evil things. In all fairness, we must admit that a many evil things can in their essence, be great. And that is one of the many theories advanced by Niccolo Machiavelli in his well-known work, The Prince. The Prince serves a dual purpose of both teaching a person how to attain power, but also how to retain it. Incredibly enough, history has proven most of Machiavelli’s findings and theories to work well, while some have failed to effectively secure power for the rulers who did, in fact try them. His work, does obviously highlight one main fact, which is, that power is a well sought-after attribute, and most who attain are willing to do whatever is necessary to keep it.
Niccolo Machiavelli, an Italian Renaissance political philosopher, was born on May 3rd, 1469 and died at the young age of 58. Niccolo had always been a writer of poems and analyses of political meetings, but his most famous work was The Prince because it showed his true personality. The Prince was written in 1513, at the beginning stages of the Renaissance period, but wasn’t published until years after Machiavelli’s death when the Medici Pope Clement VII gave permission. Medici were high status Italian families, usually bankers and merchants, during the 15th century, or Renaissance time. Machiavelli had very strong political opinions and was not afraid to voice them.
The Prince, written by Niccolo Machiavelli, is one of the first examinations of politics and science from a purely scientific and rational perspective. Machiavelli theorizes that the state is only created if the people cooperate and work to maintain it. The state is also one of man?s greatest endeavors, and the state takes precedence over everything else. The state should be one?s primary focus, and maintaining the sovereignty of the state one?s most vital concern. The state is founded on the power of its military. Therefore, a strong military is vital to maintaining the state. Machiavelli believes that men respect power, but they will take advantage of kindness. He believes that when given the opportunity one must destroy completely, because if one does not he will certainly be destroyed. The prince should lead the military, and he has to be intelligent. An effective politician can make quick and intelligent choices about the problems that constantly arise before him. He must also have virtue, which means he is strong, confident, talented, as well as smart. A prince cannot be uncertain, because uncertainty is a sign of weakness.
The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli, is still relevant today for many reasons. The author explains how a prince, or ruler, should act. Today, a “prince” could be portrayed as a political figure, celebrity, a person of authority, or an ordinary individual. Many people understand that Machiavelli expresses using evil means is the way to keep your power and supremacy. Throughout his work of literature, Machiavelli uses examples in history to explain that these acts are necessary for the good of the nation.
The prince, written by Machiavelli is troubled with the issues of politics, ruling a state and how a ruler or a leader should be in regards to ruling a state. One of the most important topics touched on in the book, The Prince, is the effect moral value (virtue) has on the ruler and their good or bad chance (fortune) with regards to their effects on gaining and keeping power. A leader needs to be virtuous and have good fortune on his side in order to avoid failure, however being too virtuous can possibly hinder one’s ability to run a nation successfully.
Although Machiavelli gives numerous points on what it takes to excel as a prince, he also shows some raw examples of how he feels a prince should act in order to achieve maximum supremacy. First, when he says, "ought to hold of little account a reputation for being mean, for it is one of those vices which will enable him to govern" proves Machiavelli feels mighty adamant about his view that being mean will help a prince achieve success (332). It is absurd to imagine the meanest prince as the most successful. Also, when Machiavelli states, "our experience has been that those princes who have done great things have held good faith of little account, and have known how to circumvent the intellect of men by craft" revealing his attitude to manipulate people into fearing and respecting the prince (335). Also, Machiavelli shows that for a prince to be successful, he must not think about good faith.
To become a truly effective leader, one must encapsulate the various behaviors related to the aforementioned course learnings in his/her persona and demonstrate such behaviors daily. This course has allowed me to identify four behaviors that all leaders must portray to be effective. The first of which is that a leader must be inspirational. To do so, a leader must set the appropriate vision and direction for the organization and provide a path to achieving defined goals. Additionally, a leader must induce the proper levels of motivation so that each employee has sufficient incentive to work towards the organization’s goals. As discussed in the class, motivation can be accomplished by factors such as rewarding hard work and providing the correct opportunities to employees. While these are motivating in that employees desire to be fairly compensated and to be doing work they deem valuable, inspiration comes more from organizational culture. A leader will be inspirational by setting a tone that appreciates each employee’s contribution, no matter how small in scale it is. Further, employees are inspired when they work collaboratively in a group setting and can capitalize on individual strengths to drive organizational goals.
Niccolò Machiavelli wrote, in his novel The Prince, that strong central political leadership was more important than anything else, including religion and moral behavior. Machiavelli, writing during a period of dramatic change known as the Italian Renaissance, displayed attitudes towards many issues, mostly political, which supported his belief that strong government was the most important element in society. These attitudes and ideas were very appropriate for the time because they stressed strong, centralized power, the only kind of leadership that seemed to be working throughout Europe, and which was the element Italy was lacking. Machiavelli understood that obtaining such a government could not be done without separating political conduct and personal morality, and suggested that the separation be made. The Prince, written to the Medici family over five hundred years ago contained many truths, so universal and accurate that they still influence politics today.