Analysis of Machiavelli's The Prince
In secular democracies, power is necessarily derived from the will of the governed. That power is then entrusted to a leader, who Machiavelli would understand to be a "prince". Inherently, his book, The Prince, has been close at hand for most politicians for centuries, as it provides general, historically proven advice for principalities and republics on how to govern and maintain relations with their most important resource and the very core of their power, which would be the people themselves.Machiavelli's realization of the penultimate import of the people is probably most significant reason his book holds so much influence on realpolitik. He writes, "it is essential for a prince to possess the good will and affections his people, otherwise he will be utterly without support in time of adversity." (Chapter 9). Clearly, Machiavelli understands the source of power within a princely republic lay with the people, whom the prince must constantly court. No other political philosopher before him had ever given much significance to those being governed. The reason that Machiavelli felt that the subjects were vital to the prince mai
Machiavelli understood the importance of keeping the good will of the governed populace, and with this as its backbone, The Prince provides historically supported advice on how to rule. Because of this, the Machiavellian doctrine has been accepted and followed, knowingly or unknowingly, by multitudes of princes, kings, prime ministers and presidents since his time. More advice given to the prince by Machiavelli was on general good governance, meaning how to rule, all supported by historical examples. He writes, "...the prince will avail himself of the occasion... to secure himself, with less consideration for the people by punishing the guilty, watching the suspected, and strengthening himself at all the weak points of the province..." (Chapter 3). In so doing, the prince is neither inaccessible nor invisible, but his justice is obvious to those who are governed. This is key to maintaining both power and good relations with the people. In ruling heterogeneous lands, which is where more than one ethnicity resides and more than one language is spoken, Machiavelli writes that the prince ought to "... go and reside there which
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Approximate Word count = 767
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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