Machiavelli Analysis

Machiavelli

Would you rather be feared or loved in a position of authority? According to Machiavelli it is "much safer to be feared than to be loved’. Machiavelli was an Italian historian amongst many other things during the late 15th century. He wrote about political topics which have made their way into current times and are still relatable topics and pieces of advice. The pieces Machiavelli wrote can be considered as very influential works. In specific the topics brought up in the “Qualities of the Prince” can still to this day be translated and interpreted and applied to life today. I agree with Machiavelli that as a person in an authoritative position is more likely to be successful when feared rather than an over accommodating leader

A leader such as the President is a perfect example for a topic such as being feared over being loved. Looking at the Bush administration and the choices that were made during his presidency showed that he chose to be feared rather than to be loved. Being loved required being accommodating and to be feared meant being unilaterally confrontational. Over the course of Bush’s presidency it can be seen that the majority of the time he chose the confrontational route and used his power to keep it that way rather than going out of his way to be accommodating and loved. Neil Kinkopf states “Moreover, the public also rejected the Bush Administration’s view of presidential power by electing Barack Obama. No more fear-based view of presidential power; which is to say, the public has rejected Machiavelli.” Jack Goldsmith who was the head of legal counsel for a year during the Bush Administration states that “even if the war in Iraq had gone well, the President and the President’s approach would have failed because he focused too much on “hard power””. In the instance of Presidency and the Bush administration, Machiavelli is wrong, it is better to be a president that adopts an accommodationist model than a president that is unilaterally

It is a parent’s job to raise a child to the best of their ability not to be their friend. As a parent, I can say that I have tried many different approaches to getting my daughter to listen and follow the rules I set. The times when I have attempted to be more accommodating and relaxed about the consequences for her misbehavior, my daughter has taken advantage of them and has failed to learn from her mistakes/misbehavior. When I lay out undesirable, harsh consequences she seems to listen better. I believe that as a parent, it is necessary to be respected as well as feared. If a child doesn’t fear the consequences and the parent the child will get to the point where they walk all over the parent, once this happens, the parent loses the control that is necessary to raise them. When the consequence for misbehavior is a spanking, my daughter is more attentive and tends to follow directions better than when the consequence is something along the lines of losing a toy for an amount of time. Being feared as a parent doesn’t mean that the child should be in constant fear of the parent. The fear factor is needed in order to maintain respect and not cross that