His mindset was simple. to manifest dismay and use the overwhelming power as a dictator. His intentions are clear, and his words are powerful. With a combination of rhetorical devices, a symphony of teachings are made and preached. Machiavelli is a strong advocate to use fear to herd together the common man, he begins his argument by asking a simple question, “ Here the question… safer than to be loved”. He utilizes hypophora, a method utilized by writers to hook readers on with a question which sets him up for his claim. The use of hypophora is like an alley-oop, the player that passes the ball to the dunker is the question which sets up the other player for a dunk. After instilling the question of whether it is better to be loved or feared Machiavelli lead the idea into our forethought, then he answers the question which immediately severances our time for thought on the question. By reply to the question right after, Machiavelli pitches the idea to the heirs of these imperiums, providing a higher prospect of them accepting that ideology as an answer. Machiavelli has such confidence that fear is much safer to be loved. He believes that by utilizing fear, the common men that will easily betray dare not to ever turn their backs for fear of death. For the terror of their common and worthless lives to their merciless tyrant. That sentence provides the main idea for the rest of his book, it helps prove his point by giving us the straight forward answer to the premise of the book. That sentence is a claim to Machiavelli boldly follows by and will not falter to an opposing idea. Machiavelli persistently elaborates on the idea that fear is powerful motive that is not to be reckoned with, he starts to state the fault in the common man. Machiavelli states “ For it is a good general rule… the danger is remote,”. Machiavelli here utilizes the rule of thirds, and partially inductive
Lao Tzu and Machiavelli have different perspective on how a leader should lead, one believes in a compassionate leader while the other believes in a cunning leader. These seemingly contrasting ideas can be combined to form an effective leader. Lao Tzu’s idea of a compassionate leader is compatible with Machiavelli’s idea of a cunning leader, because these ideas are complementary. For a leader to become respected and praised, one must be compassionate to one’s subjects. A leader must try to act for the benefit of the citizens, one must have empathy towards the people. It is of great importance that a leader understands one’s people, for this understanding between leader and subjects form mutual respect. A leader must attempt, if the means are
Machiavelli argues the perfect prince will be both feared and loved by his people, and if unable to be both he will make himself feared and not hated. Machiavelli believes it is much safer to be feared than to be loved because people are less likely to offend and stand up against strong characters, also people are less concerned in offending a prince who has made himself loved. Accordingly, Machiavelli believes generosity is harmful to your reputation and the choice between being generous or stingy, merciful or cruel, honest or deceitful, should only be important if it aids the prince in political power. All in all, Machiavelli believes the ruler must be a great deceiver and do what is essential to uphold power over the
In Machiavelli 's " The Prince" numerous rules were presented as to what a ruler should do to succeed. From ruling with an iron fist to protecting their country 's citizens, a ruler has no choice but to be on his best mindset at all times.Machiavelli made it very clear that a fit ruler must have military experience, take religion seriously, and have the support of his own people. Usually, leaders follow these rules whole-heartedly to make sure they are represented positively and are taken seriously. Unfortunately, for Bill Clinton, he chose to follow none of these rules. Throughout his presidency, numerous rules were broken that ultimately caused his presidency to fail.
Being a prince is not as easy as it may seem. There are good and bad decisions a prince can make. Machiavelli has his own standards on how a prince should behave. According to Machiavelli, a prince could be considered a lion, a fox, or a wolf. The lion is fierce but doesn’t have the smarts, while a fox has the smarts but isn 't fierce. A wolf has a little bit of smarts and can be fierce when they are in packs. Machiavelli considered a good prince to be a mixture of a fox and a lion. Also, he wanted a prince that would honors his own words and to be generally praised by others.
What exactly is a good leader and how should they be? In the readings, by Christine de Pizan The Treasure of the City of Ladies and another by Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince. They both talk about how a prince and a princess should act upon their people. For Pizan she talks about how a princess should be kind hearted and accepting towards her people. She should act like this sho that they will help her whenever she is need. Then for Machiavelli he talks about how a prince should show no fear instead for him to show that he is the one with power. That a prince's people should fear him. Both authors go on to talk on how their people react based on the prince and princesse act. The authors then go on to explain how they should view and run their people. Both authors also reflect the fact that the way their people are going to act towards them is mainly based off of how they treat them. The authors go into how gender plays a big role on how they should act upon their people and how their people should accept them. There are many factors that go towards one being a good leader or a bad leader. That is what exactly the authors Pizan and Machiavelli explained in their readings.
In the early sixteenth century there were two people that wrote about political power and the correct way to rule, both of these people would have great influence on their time period as well as future ones. Machiavelli was a secretary who worked for the Medicis, after the Medici family was expelled from the city he would reflect on what he thought of politics and how he thought they should be by writing The Prince, it would become a very famous book even in the present day. His viewpoint on ruling was that a ruler must do whatever they can in order to improve the state no matter what, or in his words “The ends justify the means”(The Prince). Erasmus was a Dutch intellectual and leader of the Christian humanists who wrote a treatise on political
In Niccolo Machiavelli's book, The Prince (1513), he evaluates on how a prince can be a successful leader. Machiavelli’s purpose of this guidebook was to construct his argument to the rising ruler Giuliano de Medici for when he comes to power in Florence. He adopts a casual but authoritative tone in order to convince the prince that Machiavelli’s evaluation on how to be the best prince, is the right thing for the prince to do without coming off as he knows more than the prince or is trying to intimidate him.. Machiavelli’s reference to previous rulers and whether their tactics failed or succeeded helps to benefit his credibility along with his allusion to historic text. He appeals to our logic by simply stating a prince can only do what is within his power to control, and his use of an analogy furthers his argument.
The Prince, written by Machiavelli, is a candid outline of how he believes leaders gain and keep power. Machiavelli uses examples of past leaders to determine traits that are necessary to rule successfully. Leaders such as the King of Naples and the Duke of Milan lacked military power, made their subjects hate them, or did not know how to protect themselves from the elite, causing them to lose power. He says that these rulers should blame laziness, not luck, for their failures. By looking at these historical successes and failures, Machiavelli is able to develop his own thoughts on how politics and leaders should be in the future. The overall goal of the government should be the well-being and stability of the state. He states that leaders
Bossuet taught that royal power is absolute, and the will of the people is united in the king. He stated that “without his absolute authority, the king could neither do good, nor prevent evil.” This showed that Bossuet believed that the absolute power of the king led to the well-being of his subjects (D-2). Similarly, much of Machiavelli’s beliefs coincided with Bossuet’s teachings. In his book, The Prince, Machiavelli offered his opinion on how an effective ruler should govern over his or her subjects. The main point made by Machiavelli was that men are inherently bad, so a leader must rule in a way that takes this into account. He taught that because of man’s ungratefulness, it is safer to be feared than loved (D-4). This shows that Machiavelli believed that the power and success of a country will lead to the prosperity of its inhabitants. Both influential people believed that a country prospers the most under absolute power.
In 1513, Niccolo Machiavelli wrote “The Prince,” telling rulers how they should rule. (Document 1) Many of the ideas in his book are shown in the ways these rulers governed their people. King Louis XIV believed if there were multiple people had power more would take advantage of it (Document 3) which is a major idea from “The Prince,” stating “for love is held by a bond of obligation, which, as men are wicked, is broken whenever personal advantage suggests it.” (Document 1). Machiavelli’s book also suggests that a ruler should be feared by everyone that dares to face him. At this time, one ruler appeared to be more daunting than a chain of command. Another major idea spread during this time period was the idea of a social contract, from “Leviathan” by Thomas Hobbes. He explains that if two people desire the same thing which they cannot both enjoy, they will end up destroying each other. Two people should be able to lay down their right to all things and be contempt with having as much as another person has, instead of trying to fight with them in order to gain more. ( Document 4) These ideas drastically impacted the rule during this time and can be seen in the actions of the
They can’t let any situation bring them down and affect their daily life. It helps a leader remain calm in uncertain situations, a courtier when they may face difficult problems in the court of royalty and everyday people when talking to someone they wanted to show respect to. Machiavelli never mentioned his exemplary leader with mental strength, so one can assume it wasn’t a trait he considered significant. However, he did mention false sincerity in paragraphs six and seven. Instead of holding the traits of honesty, trustworthiness and leniency, Machiavelli told one make it only look as though did instead, and when the time came, they could be corrupt, sly and merciless. “It is good to appear clement [merciful] (sic), trustworthy, humane, religious, and honest, and also to be so, but always with the mind so disposed that, when the occasion arises not to be so, you can become the opposite...he must see to all who see and hear him a model of piety, loyalty, integrity, humanity, and religion.” (Machiavelli, ❡6-7). To give false sincerity to someone, it ruins the ideal image of that person when discovered they are not as they seem. As a leader, the population one had loyalty from could be reversed. The power that one had worked hard to acquire would fall from their grasp, and they would be portrayed as a liar and a disgrace to society after the discovery of their dishonesty to the people they
According to Machiavelli, ideal prince is a risk-taker who puts a military on action, as the people respect the warrior. An ideal prince thinks for himself rather than relying on others, knows how to read characters, and does not surround himself with flatterers. He lives in reality, not fantasy. He works hard, utilizes his own mind, and makes survival of his guide. The ideal leader is neither loved nor hated, but respected. He cannot be too generous, because that increases people 's expectations of him and it is impossible to keep buying the people 's love as the price gets too high. Yet, the prince should not be hated due to his violent nature, because that rises up. The prince should act in ways that keep him in power and maintain his own power. He should be able to read the character and motives of others in order to use them for his own ends. A good prince is able to
A leader who has loyal subjects should have no fear of being overthrown. He may cause terror among the other kingdoms but within his walls, his subjects must oppose the idea of overthrowing him. As Machiavelli said, “A cruel leader could defend themselves from outside enemies but could not help being plotted against by their own citizens” so a feared leader should fear being overthrown (Machiavelli 333). One might say being feared is different from being cruel. In some way, a feared leader will perform a cruel deed in order to produce the fear he wishes the citizens to feel. A feared leader cannot make himself be loved or safe when the people are his enemy because he is outnumbered by them (Machiavelli 334). A leader who is loved sees the trouble of his people
During the Renaissance period, the state came to be regarded as something that was made and is secular. Machiavelli, considered today as the founder of modern political science, was one of those who opened up this new route by dedicating himself in explaining ideas and theories regarding politics. But what made Machiavelli very famous in the world of politics is his most influential and controversial book "The Prince". He wrote this book based on his analysis of political leaders in the government during his time. It focuses on discussing necessary characteristics of the prince to successfully acquire and maintain its political power highlighting his well-known maxim, "the end justifies the means". Although his work is renowned