The main book I will focus on is Machiavelli's The Prince. This book was written both to and for Prince Lorenzo de' Medici. Machiavelli wrote this book as sort of a resume for the prince. Machiavelli had Machiavelli hoped to land an advisory position within the Florentine government, and wrote a dedicatory book in hopes of accomplishing this goal. Some critics have argued that since Machiavelli's motivation for the book was to land a position on the prince's advisory staff, he fulfills the definition of "calculating". The argument has been made that since he was calculating in his efforts, that he is Machiavellian. If we can assume that his book was more or less a resume or a showing of his skill, then it seems very legitimate for him to have these motives. Don't we all have these

In his chapter entitled "Of Cruelty and Mercy, and Whether it is Better to be Loved than Feared, or the Contrary," Machiavelli discusses some concerns regarding cruelty and things of that nature. Within this chapter, Machiavelli says that a prince must be compassionate, but cruel when necessary, such as in the case of criminal affairs. It is his thought that crime harms the entire community, where as executions are only harmful to those people who choose to commit crimes. He says that some cruelty is necessary in order to maintain tranquility, and that a prince should be watchful of his exercise of cruelty. This is to ensure that the cruelty is tempered with prudence and humanity. This kind of cruelty is what Machiavelli talks about when he discusses fear. He says that it is often necessary to be feared by the people. The fear he speaks of is fear of being punished for crimes, which again, is in place to maintain order and tranquility. So once again, Machiavelli's main concern was with maintaining the peace, and not being duplicitous or crafty. He has shown hardly any examples of Machiavellianism through this.

In another excerpt from The Prince, Machiavelli discusses the necessary and most advantageous strengths of a principality. In this, he says that it is best to keep an army of equal size and strength as that of any enemies. For obvious reasons, an equal sized army is preferable over a smaller, weaker army when compared to that of enemies. As Machiavelli says, "whoever has fortified his town well, and managed the other governing of his subjects...will always be attacked with great hesitation.3" It seems through this chapter that his main concern is not having an army so large and powerful so as to conquer numerous lands, but rather strong enough to prevent war of any kind. This shows that Machiavelli's main concern was with peace within a principality, rather than power gained through multiple conquerings. Some would argue that this constitutes as modesty. Modesty is hardly a quality that falls under "Machiavellian".

Another chapter within The Prince is "How to Govern Cities and Principalities That, Prior to Being Occupied, Lived Under Their Own Laws". Within this chapter, Machiavelli describes three ways to deal with these kinds of cities. One way is to devastate them. Another way is to conquer and occupy them. The third way is to allow the state to maintain their laws, but to add taxes and an oligarchy to maintain these laws and taxes. Although the first two options have a seemingly negative connotation, Machiavelli says that the third option is the most preferable and advantageous. It is advantageous because the newly imposed oligarchy will work hard to secure the authority of the prince. This is mainly due to the fact that they owe their existence and status to the prince. As long as your goal is not to devastate the state, it is the easiest to rule through use of its own people. This shows that Machiavelli prefers the use of more peaceful methodology over complete devastation.

One chapter that is prone to controversy is "Mixed Principalities." This chapter is virtually on the difficulties of maintaining a new principality versus a hereditary one. The reason so much controversy arises from this chapter is because Machiavelli seems to condone the destroying (killing) of the family of the former prince. The reasoning behind this is so that there won't be anyone of power who remembers, and wishes, for the ways of the former prince. Despite the negativity this entails, it can be considered, more or less, self-defense. If there is someone with power who remembers the old ways, it would be remotely easy to organize a revolt

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Approximate Word count = 2489
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)