The Prince

The Prince

Governing countries and states properly has been a difficult task from the beginning of time. In every country there will be people to who are unhappy and will disagree with your rule, causing your system to fail. So, century after century, people have tried new ways to make their politics suffice everyone’s needs. However, the art of politics is a complicated and challenging issue that will always be needed to be dealt with. There have been many ways in which people have preached their ideas on politics, but none were better than those of

Niccolo Machiavelli. Born in 1469, Niccolo was adamant in creating a master plan for seizing and controlling power. He voiced these themes on what it takes to be a prince of a state in his magnificent book, The Prince. In his book many themes were expressed in order to fulfill the role of a prince. These themes ranged from human nature to military force and most importantly virtue.

Machavelli believed that the state is the highest achievement of man and one should love the state more than his own soul. Being the perfect prince is clearly a difficult task, but if done correctly, it can be very rewarding. Machiavelli also believed that human nature does not change. In general Machiavelli thought people were ungrateful, selfish, and insincere people, who only care about themselves. Therefore the government must take account for man’s true nature and use his qualities for its purposes. Machiavelli also explained that a ruler who intends to be successful must be prepared to do bad things when necessary. He must sometimes caress, sometimes hurt, sometimes forgive, and sometimes punish. This requirement must override all moral judgments, and when making the decision, the ruler must act without hesitation. Hesitation would project “false wisdom”.

Another, and probably the most important concept of political success is the idea of virtue. Virtue means strength, intelligence, and courage, the necessary qualities of any human being. Machiavelli felt that the quality of virtue was found in some of the world’s most important leaders; Moses, Cyrus, and

Romulus to name a few. Governments ruled by an individual depends upon this leaders virtue. Without it, the political success will crumble.

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...felt it was necessary to study history. This way he can focus on successful rulers’ victories and defeats and analyze them for his own well being. Alexander the Great studied and imitated the rule of Achilles and went on to become one of the most successful rulers ever. Machiavelli felt that these were necessary means in becoming a successful ruler. He also felt fortifications had little importance, stating “the best fortress is to be found in the love of the people”.

In Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince, we have read numerous aspects of becoming an effective and successful ruler. He focused on all aspects of life and discussed each in great detail. He studied human nature, fortune, military tactics, virtue, and personal qualities of past rulers and analyzed why each one’s rule collapsed. He found out the ruler with both the lion and the fox qualities, he was able to have a successful rule. Machiavelli was creating some sort of machine that would be able to conquer fortune, human nature, conspiracies, battle, and the test of to time to rule a politically unified Italy. The themes in The

Prince have changed views on politics and leadership to this day.