Thoughts on the Prince

Thoughts on The Prince

The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli is a masterful piece of literature to come out of the Italian Renaissance. The book suggests how an absolute monarch should run his domain. The book goes through nearly everything a prince will have to encounter during his rule. Machiavelli supports his claims through references of current events of the time. Chapter 17, in particular, deals with the question of whether a prince should strive to be with feared or loved by his people. The thought may not be the first thing that comes to mind in countries like the United States but it was certainly a hot topic during the times of kings and queens. There is also some modern application of this as many less developed countries have rulers that may have to answer the question stated above. Machiavelli had his opinion on the subject and he was able to defend his claim well by citing various rulers and the results of the way they governed. Machiavelli came to the conclusion that a prince should not try to go to deep in either direction as both sides of the equation have major disadvantages. He instead recommends that a monarch go the route of instilling enough fear that he keeps himself safe from harm but deals justice fairly. This is not a bad plan of attack but many modern dictators have proven that other ways may be more effective. It is better to be feared completely than loved as the subjects may not be completely loyal to you but it is the safest and most efficient way to rule.

Fear is a very powerful motivator. Fear can make someone do an act they would never dream of doing. Throughout the history of the world, there have been countless leaders who stay in power for decades using solely fear. Nobody likes them but the fear of death is so great that the person in power does not have to worry about assassination attempts or loss of power because the people know how great the consequences are.

The first real world example of a ruler like this is Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union from the 1920s to 1950s. Stalin would go on to be the worst mass murderer in human history killing an estimated 23 million people during his rule (Scaruffi, 2009, para. 2). During World War II, Stalin used a policy that instilled fear into his men. The Russians were severely ill equipped to fight the Germans. They lacked ammunition, guns, clothing, et cetera. Stalin called upon his soldiers to defend the “motherland”. What he really did was just force the soldiers to do his will. An example of this can be seen in how the Russians would attack. Since they were lacking guns for all the soldiers, one or two guns would be given to a group of soldiers and they would have to make due. All the soldiers would run together and when the soldier with the weapon was killed another soldier would just pick up the weapon and keep moving. If someone decided to try and run, he would be shot for abandoning his country.