The Prince By Niccolo Machiavelli Analysis

If someone is loved as a leader, they have a certain image to uphold. If people disagree with their choices, they may try and get that person out of office. This is shown in The Tragedy Of Julius Caesar during Brutus' funeral speech for Caesar, he solemnly confessed "as he was/ valiant, I honor him: but, as he was ambitious, I/ slew him." (III, 2, 23-24) Brutus is saying that even though he loved Caesar, he killed him, because he was too ambitious. This means the ambition ruined Caesar's image to Brutus, causing Caesar's death. This is important because if people rule by fear, they won't have an image to uphold, and that can prevent their rule from ending prematurely. Moreover, love can make people neglectful towards major decisions that the leader makes.

The political situation that prompted Machiavelli to write The Prince was that Italy wasn’t a unified country yet. It was a bunch of city states.

Throughout The Prince, Machiavelli encourages the idea that a fear leader is a good leader. Machiavelli makes the point that a good leader knows that it is, “far safer to be feared than loved” (Machiavelli 43) because love allows for weakness. It is easy to keep people under control and in line when they fear their leader because they do not want to have to face consequences that come with “doing wrong”. When a leader is loved, some many look at this as a weakness. Those who fear their leader are is less likely to curate rebellions and revolts because they know that their leader is not afraid of applying punishment. When a ruler is too kind to their subjects it leaves them vulnerable and they are easily taken advantage of, which threatens their position. For a good leader should, “desire to be accounted merciful and not cruel”, and needs to,

In The Prince, Machiavelli discusses ways in which a ruler should obtain power and maintain power, emphasizing the concept of gaining power through virtue versus fortune. Virtue, or virtu in the original Italian, is defined as the masculine quality of power, and not necessarily tied to ideas of morality as it is in the English definition.

Machiavelli thought that a ruler should be feared because it causes the citizens to not revolt against them.(Doc 1) That statement is not true because the Enlightenment caused a democracy instead of an absolute monarchy. With an absolute monarchy, Machiavelli didn’t want the citizens to have any freedom and wanted them to fear the ruler, but the democracy government changed that. The ruler did not have full control over everyone anymore. The ruler was also not feared and no one revolted against them. This proves that a ruler doesn’t have to be feared in order for citizens not to revolt.

People in power positions abuse their power by evoking fear in their community. For example, in “Antigone,” King Creon evokes fear in his community by threatening to stone and torture people. When the Sentry scurried off to tell Creon the news about the burial he says, “I’ll not say that I’m out of breath from running, King, because every time I stopped to think about what I have to tell you, I felt like going back.” This quote from Sentry implies that he is scared of what Creon would do

According to Machiavelli's view of how to be an effective leader, a ruler should be one who is feared but not hated. Machiavelli states that fear is better than love because love is unreliable. All of the reasons that Machiavelli gives relate to how human nature controls men and drives them to commit crimes in order to reach their goals and satisfy themselves.

“It is much safer to be feared than loved.” This quotation was just a specimen of the harsh and very practical political annotation of the legendary historian, Niccolò Machiavelli – philosopher, patriot, diplomat, advisor and statesman. He was born as the son of a poor lawyer in 1498, but he never let boundaries restrict him. He still received an excellent humanist education from the University of Florence and was soon after appointed as the Second Chancellor of the Republic of Florence.2 His political importance to Florence would soon give him the opportunity to write what is disputed as one of the most significant works in history, The Prince.

People are unlikely to overthrow a ruler that they fear, for they dread the punishments of failure. If the ruler is not feared by the people, he will eventually upset enough of them that they will rise up against him. They will overthrow him because of his perceived weakness, and his name and image will be shamed in the eyes of both his government and his people. Machiavelli believes that the state is completely separate from the ruler’s private life. No matter how immoral or heartless the ruler may be in private, only his public image is important. A ruler can be a terrible, sleazy person on their own time, and when not involved with matters of the state, but at any time when the leader is involved in politics and the state, you cannot afford to injure the image of the ruler or else anarchy will develop. With this kind of rebellion can come revolution, war, and many other tragedies that could be otherwise avoided.

affective ruler should be loved and feared at the same time. But since its hard to be

Machiavelli ties virtue very closely to that of prudence. He defines virtue as acting exceptionally and draws a distinction between morality and virtue. In many respects Machiavelli defines virtue by prudence. If a ruler is able to balance his violence, keep his subjects appeased, and have a dire understanding of his threats, then in Machiavelli's eyes the ruler has a strong virtue. What must be understood is that the throne is always in jeopardy and someone is always there to try to knock the prince off his pedestal. This is a prime understanding that a prince must have, and fuels the infamous argument by Machiavelli that it is better to be feared than loved. Machiavelli explains that, for the most part, love is very subjective and eventually will subside unless further concessions are made to appease his subjects. In addition, people only care about their personal conveniences and a prince would have to overextend himself if he were to be loved by all. Fear, however, is not subjective and has a universal effect on all his people. Fear can be attained by sporadic violent acts. One must understand, however, that massive amounts of violence can not be done because it would portray the Prince as tyrant, and might stir up his people to revolt against him. The acts must be calculated, concise, and serve a direct purpose not only to his benefit but to the

Niccolo Machiavelli and Karl Marx developed theories concerning wealth and poverty in our society, as well as different types of governments. For instance, Machiavelli supported a capitalist economic system, unlike Marx, who embraced socialism in the society. Machiavelli wrote a book "The Prince" that explained how to be an effective leader. The theme of the book is "the end justifies the means." A person could or should do whatever is necessary to achieve the desired goal. According to Machiavelli, there is no concept of a perfect ruler, but only effective or ineffective leaders. Therefore, he claims that there are no fair fighters, but only losers and winners. Contrary, Marx embraced democracy as good practice for the government. This paper will analyze whether Marx would buy Machiavelli 's thought that states "desired ends justify undesirable means" (Weng 1).

Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince examines the nature of power and his views of power are still somewhat in existence today. I'll discuss this in this essay, emphasizing the following theses. Machiavelli discusses power over the people, dictatorial power, and power with people, shared power. While it is possible for power with to attain greater prevalence in society, it will not completely eliminate power over. In The Prince, Machiavelli discusses two distinct groups of people, the political elite, including nobles and other princes, and the general public. Today in the United States, the first group, the political elite, includes political leaders, religious leaders, business leaders and the leaders of

What must be understood is that the throne is always in jeopardy and someone is always there to try to knock the prince off his pedestal. This is a prime understanding that a prince must have, and fuels the infamous argument by Machiavelli that it is better to be feared than loved. Machiavelli explains that, for the most part, love is very subjective and eventually will subside unless further concessions are made to appease his subjects. In addition, people only care about their personal conveniences and a prince would have to overextend himself if he were to be loved by all. Fear, however, is not subjective and has a universal effect on all his people. Fear can be attained by sporadic violent acts. One must understand, however, that massive amounts of violence can not be done because it would portray the Prince as tyrant, and might stir up his people to revolt against him. The acts must be calculated, concise, and serve a direct purpose not only to his benefit but to the people’s also. Despite what might be assumed, Machiavelli is really developing a principality based around the people, where the Prince’s actions are merely to save his own head from the chopping block.

Obtaining power is one of the most important ways to either become a ruler or gaining the right to rule. But, in today’s politics the president is already in power so he doesn’t have to gain much more. Machiavelli lays out 3 ways to obtain power in chapter 5. “The first is the destroy it...who will keep the rest your friends.” (Machiavelli, pg. 11). In today’s government we don’t go out destroying countries to add to our land but about 500 years ago we would go to war to obtain the control of whatever space we wanted in the US. Way two is what the president does today which is live in the US since he is in control of it. Lastly, the president will probably never do the third way which is leave his country to live under another country's rule to become friends. “Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved.” (Machiavelli). This quote Machiavelli strongly believes in goes over the extent of the president today. No one running or currently president wants to be known as the evil one or someone who is feared by many. They want to be loved by many to win the votes but they also need to have a backbone so they don’t have other countries stepping all over them. But, this quote can be seen used by bad rulers in history and even today. One example is Hitler, he rose to power and was feared by many especially the people he targeted. He was able to obtain power so quickly because the Germans trusted him since being drilled to Heil Hitler at such a young age. Obtaining power back then is way over the extent to how the government today gains their power.