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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.
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.
Multiple historians have touched on the change in government during Fascist Italy’s reign in World War II. In Italian Fascism: Its Origins and Development, Alexander De Grand clarifies the many promises Benito Mussolini fabricated for the Italian people in order to get them to join his cause such as the improvement on poverty with the rise of a new Roman Empire. De Grand also gives an opposite view, with some citizens seeing Fascism as a “model of efficiency.” In Melton S. Davis’ Who Defends Rome?, t...
Putnam, Robert. 1993a. Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
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
be a great king, but a journey within himself to find who he truly was
power of Florence. He used a proper metaphor to illustrate a number of interests of each faction and
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
"The manner in which Mussolini and the Fascist Party gained possession of the government was regarded in most foreign circles as an illegal act of violence." (3) As the nation of Italy began to suffer great debts, Mussolini had been summoned by the King to form a government to aid in the economic needs. This marked the birth of the Fascist Party in Italy. In the beginning of his rise to the top, Mussolini was popular amongst his people. His popularity was high, and people began to trust in his judgment and ideas. (4) He was, in essence, saving the people from the turmoil that had ensued the nat...
The Black Prince was the eldest son of King Edward the 3rd. His real name was Prince Edward Plantagenet and he was born in June of 1330 at the royal palace of Woodstock. The Black Prince grew up to become one of the most famous me diaeval warriors of all time. It is not really known where his nickname (the Black Prince) stemmed from, however, it is certain that it originated about two hundred years after his death. There is no evidence to support that he wore black armor, which seems to have inspired the very famous nickname. He did, however, carry a shield of peace which was predominantly black. This is probably the most likely reason for his nickname.
During this period of Italian history, Catholicism was the dominant religion, and reigned supreme among others. Advancement in the Catholic faith was used as a means to secure political power in a divided region. With religion and politics being strongly interconnected, the Pope was often seen as the most influential political f...
Niccoló Machiavelli claims in “The Qualities of the Prince” that a prince must have certain qualities that will allow him to seize and maintain his power as a ruler. Machiavelli asserts that these qualities will guarantee the ruler to be able to govern his subjects effectively. According to him, a prince must study the art of war, must understand generosity and to what extent he must be generous to be effective, must choose to either be loved or feared, and be able to keep his word to his citizens according to the situation. These qualities can still apply in today’s politics, and will be useful for a modern time politician as long as they are used carefully.
Due to the flawed world, the prince should fear two things, “one from inside his state because of his subjects, the other from outside because of foreign enemies,” (289). A prince must never be too generous in front of both his people and to foreigners. As long as his people are satisfied under his ruling and he has nurtured a noble set of soldiers, they will defend their prince at any cost against a conspirator or those who hate him.
The sections that I will be presenting are 73, 74, and 75. I will discuss the political ideas of Niccolo Machiavelli, Francesco Guicciardini, and Thomas Hobbes during the time of Florence Republic. First, Niccolo Machiavelli was born in Florence, Italy in 1469 at a time when the country was in political upheaval. Italy was divided between four dominant city-states, by which each of them was always at the mercy of the continual changing of princes and governments.
“The Prince”, by Niccolo Machiavelli, is a series of letters written to the current ruler of Italy, Lorenzo de’ Medici. These letters are a “how-to” guide on what to do and what not to do. He uses examples to further express his views on the subject. The main purpose was to inform the reader how to effectively rule and be an acceptable Prince. Any ruler who wishes to keep absolute control of his principality must use not only wisdom and skill, but cunning and cruelness through fear rather than love. Machiavelli writes this book as his summary of all the deeds of great men.
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....