Niccolò Machiavelli, was very well known in the Medici government. Yet, we still now hardly anything about him in history. Between the years 1469 to 1498 much of his life must have been kept a secret or something because that time frame in history for him is pretty bare. All they know is that his father happened to be a poor lawyer and wanted his son to have a good education. “Those who become rulers through strength of purpose [vie virtuose], as they did, acquire their kingdoms with difficulty, but they hold on to them with ease. And much of the difficulty they have in getting to power derives from the new institutions and customs they are obliged to establish in order to found their governments and make them secure” (p.19). “Now you only …show more content…
Within a civil principality, there would be a prince that require to be quick-witted and lucky to gain control. Disagreeing regards between the nobility and the lower class deliver to appoint a prince mandatory for both parties. Even though, a prince will find it effortless to hold control if he is constructed by the plebeians. The prince’s demand to behave towards nobles negatively gave approval to how they are biased against him. He needs to learn to be able to tie their fortunes to his own. Nonetheless, the particular independents may be of two kinds. Their freedom comes from an absence of bravery to join themselves together to the prince’s purpose, in which they may be passed down and recognized for their helping hand; or they are free because they have their own deadlines and strong desires for success in mind. In this particular case, the prince must be careful of them as possible
The bravery and strength of the lion will not be enough to empower the ruler to escape the snares set by his enemies for and the slyness of the fox is also needed. “The lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves.” (The Prince) It is not possible for the citizens to love and fear a prince, but being feared is much safer than being loved.“Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved” (The Prince) Everything a prince says must be filled with these five qualities: being merciful,being trustworthy, religious,kind, honest. Machiavelli defines virtues as qualities that are praised by others, such as generosity, compassion, and piety. He argues that a prince should always try to appear virtuous, but it is more important for the prince to be practical than it is for him to be morally good. The government that is built of this foundation it
It has been shown again and again throughout history and literature that if there is a perfect human he is not also the perfect ruler. Those traits which we hold as good, such as the following of some sort of moral code, interfere with the necessity of detachment in a ruler. In both Henry IV and Richard II, Shakespeare explores what properties must be present in a good ruler. Those who are imperfect morally, who take into account only self-interest and not honor or what is appropriate, rise to rule, and stay in power.
In Political Testament, Cardinal Richelieu explains that the nobility is something to be used as a tool, a perpetual game of appeasement and request of services. He understood that the nobility could be a nuisance and a body of dissent against the King, but that they were necessary to the crown to provide military aid and money. Richelieu explains that one must know how to manage and manipulate them: “To take away the lives of these persons, who expose their lives every day for a pure fancy of honor, is much less than taking away their honor and leaving them a life which would be a perpetual anguish for them. All means must be used to maintain the nobility in the true virtue of their fathers, and one must also omit nothing to preserve the advantages they inherited.” ...
The Prince, written by Machiavelli is concerned with the issues politics, ruling a state and how a ruler or a leader should be. The key properties of a ruler are represented by Machiavelli in details and the inner and outer effects of the success in ruling are mentioned. One of the most important topics in The Prince is about the relationship of skillfulness (virtù) of the ruler and his good or bad chance (fortune) and their effects on gaining and keeping the power. Virtù, which has the present meaning of manliness, is used by Machiavelli as having skills, strength, intelligence and prudence of a ruler. It is the inner ability to gain the power and not to lose it easily. Fortuna, with the present use, fortune is explained as the word of God and the luck and opportunity that is given to the ruler. A ruler by fortune is dependent
The subject of human nature has great emphasis in “The Prince”. Human beings are viewed as rational decision makers who try to maximize their self-interest. They are inclined to help whoever will give them the most benefits and by definition, may easily betray someone to whom they were previously loyal seeing a better opportunity. A large part of being a prince or a politician is being able to lead people, and therefore it is of utter importance in how to deal with their behavior. “Here a question arises: whether it is better to be loved than feared, or the reverse. The answer is, of course, that it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will fin...
Machiavelli stated “..., if the prince is reasonably assiduous he will always maintain his rule, unless some extraordinary and inordinate force deprives him of it; and if so deprived, whenever the usurper suffers a setback he will reconquer.” 1 Here Machiavelli proclaims that the natural prince will have the peoples support as long as the princes ambitions are moderate. Machiavelli also states that the natural prince will have less reason to cause the people to hate, when he states “ The fact is that the natural prince has less reason and less need to give offence; and so it follows that he should be more loved; ” 1 Now Machiavelli shifts his focus toward new states. Machiavelli states that new principalities are far more difficult to sustain than hereditary principalities for many reasons. Machiavelli claims that conquering new states is the most dangerous and difficult mission
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.
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.
A Prince also does not need to have all excellent traits. He is allowed to show his merciful, humane and religious side, but he is also allowed to show the sides that contradict these traits in order to keep a balance. He gives an example of a present day Prince who preaches and practices both peace and good faith, and due to this lost his authority and his kingdom
The reading from “the prince” made one understand the many instances that most Princes do acquire principalities either through virtue or an attribution to fortune or by wickedness. Hence, Machiavelli made us understand that there were many instances that these princes with their own virtue had to go through trials and struggles to rise from a private station to attain their principality. Many excellent examples Machiavelli made mentioned were Moses, Cyrus, Romulus, Theseus, and such like “ by their own ability and not through fortune, have risen to be princes.” (chap. VI)
He who becomes ruler with the aid of the great maintains himself with more difficulty than he who becomes ruler with the aid of the people, because the first is in the position of a prince with a good
Machiavelli’s The Prince is a book written to be a guide for a successful princedom. Machiavelli wrote this for his childhood friend Lorenzo de Medici when he takes over his father’s princedom. He writes many rules, strategies, and offers historical examples for Medici to refer to while he is ruling. Out of the many guidelines set, Machiavelli emphasizes three main key points to rule successfully. In The Prince, Machiavelli states that the characteristics of an ideal prince are loyalty, military knowledge, and mercy.
... that must be wise in general. An avoidant of hatred or despise prince cannot be lead a nation that hates him. Keep faith at a minimum trust is good and well but can be broken over the smallest of greed. Bravery and strength is necessary for any great man. All of these characteristics will build a strong and amazing prince in the eyes of Niccolo Machiavelli.
No matter which side the prince chooses he will have something to gain out of the partnership. The concept that the decision between two brings up is that princes make decisions based on how they will affect his public image. If the side the prince adheres with emerges victorious, “…He is obliged to you, and there is a contract of love,” (110). This means that in the future, the prince will have the advantage of having a country indebted to him, which only serves to create a gain for him. This partnership will help his image because it offers the prince another grand conquest that will improve his public image. On the other hand, he must give up some his authority in order to join ranks with the winning side, which will damage his public image because even though he joined a winning crusade, he was not the driving force behind it. On the other hand, if he joins with the losing side, “You become a partner in a fortune that can rise again,” (110). As opposed to the joining the winning side, the prince will have to give up some of his esteemed public image in order to join the losing side. His gain from this partnership may be even greater because by helping bringing a fallen state back to old heights, he shows his subjects that his presence is so dominating that he can help even the weakest causes. In
The book The Prince was a book of advice to politicians regarding how gain power and keep that power. The title The Prince is not about someone who has inherited land and a decedent to a king. In Machiavelli’s perspective a prince was a man of the citizens....