Machiavelli Essay

Machiavelli

Machiavelli’s The Prince consists of the brutally honest ideas of the proper way to maintain and oversee a principality. Throughout the book, Machiavelli relentlessly diminishes the goodness of virtue and justice in a human being. He endorses the need to be more brutal and self-serving. This book, like its name, is particularly focused on the prince. There is little to no care for the people of the society. Machiavelli does not care about the moral consequences of execution and cruelty. It is all about strategy. The essence of this book appears to be best suited for dictators, however, a lot of the information contains important advice for any leaders of democratic countries. Machiavelli was able to provide proper governing advice for democratic leaders as well as dictators through his impression of limited virtue, his idea of being feared as a ruler, and his strategic methods of being a leader that people are attracted to.

Machiavelli covers the topic of being feared over being loved as a ruler, thus leading to a significant aspect of imperative rule. “Upon this a question arises, whether it be better to be loved than feared or feared than loved?” States Machiavelli in chapter seventeen of the Prohyptikon Value Classics version of The Prince. He continues to write about the pros of being feared and the disadvantage to being only loved, in consort with the fact that the two cannot be integrated. According to him, it is safer to be feared because people in general are selfish and deceitful. They will take advantage of the kindness of the ruler and only help them if it is beneficial to themselves, however, if that is not the case they will turn against their ruler. If the prince is feared by the people, they would not dare turn against him and make him upset. This is a rancorous way of looking at the nature of humanity, and this therefore makes it seem like a very dictatorial method of rule. However, this is quite accurate to an extent. It is understandable that no ruler should be too lenient, for this will always lead to an easy revolt and loss of order. Leaders of democratic countries should certainly take Machiavelli’s advice into consideration. Knowing this information, it would be easier for the ruler to prevent the mistake from being made. They do not have to be a terrorizing tyrant, but their people must have limited fear of the leader. This would not change the fact that it is a democratic nation, for it just lets the leader maintain control. For these reasons, although seemingly harsh, it is very true for all rulers that they must be feared in some form in order to maintain their rule.

Machiavelli also implies the need of being a ruler that the people would want by associating it with his view of fortune. “For my part I consider that it is better to be adventurous than cautious, because fortune is a woman, and if you wish to keep her it is necessary to beat