The Prince of Machiavelli is a smart politician, who can put into practice correct political decisions, which will lead to the achievement of the purpose of the political success. He realizes that it is impossible to have all the qualities that will condemn him in the eyes of citizens. So a prince has of necessity to be so prudent that he know how to escape the evil reputation attached to those vices which could lose him his state, and how to avoid those vices which are not so dangerous, if he possibly can; but, if he cannot, he need not worry so much about the latter (Machiavelli, N., The Prince, Penguin Classics, 1999, p. 51).
According to Machiavelli, a reputation of prince’s generosity will ruin his state, even though most people would admire it. A prince should be parsimonious with his own fortune, as he cannot practice the virtue of generosity in a notable way, except to his cost. Instead, he should very generous giving away what belongs to strangers, as it will increase his glory, and in no way as such will harm him. Also, the prince has to be open- handed with his soldiers on the alien good, as the soldiers could refuse to follow him. Generosity is self-defeating, as it finishes off all the resources, which leads to disgrace, and hate among the citizens.
Compassion is something that people will appreciate, but a prince must be careful with it and when necessary adequately punish disloyal subjects, to prevent the disorder. The crime will harm the entire community, while punishment harms the person who commits the crime. The prince should maintain balance between cruelty and humanity, alongside with prudence. It is good if prince is both loved and feared, but if the choice has to be maid then fear would be more valuable, as by nature men are ungrateful, dissembling. The bond of love could be easily broken if the situations arise, while the fear of punishment is very effective in most of the situations. The justifications of any executions must be properly made in order to avoid hatred. Machiavelli suggests that the prince should never confiscate the property or take the women of his subjects, which can lead against him. In army the cruelty is justified, and even inhuman cruelty is advised in order to keep the army disciplined and united.
Even though the prince that honors his word is praised by others, Machiavelli insists that historically it can be realized that most success comes to the rulers when they can trick their words for their own favor. There are two ways in order to be able to this. The first one is by law, which is natural to humans, and the other is by force, which is natural to beasts. The successful prince is the one that can combine both or this fighting ways, so to speak he has to become half man and half beast. The prince becomes beast when uses force. There are also two types of beasts: foxes, and lions. ‘One must be a fox in order to recognize traps and a lion to frighten off wolves and those who simply act like lions are stupid’ (Machiavelli, N., The Prince, Penguin Classics, 1999, p. 57). Machiavelli suggests different techniques to different problems, as the prince will know the traps if he acts like fox, and frighten off wolves, if he acts like lion.
If the promises that the prince gave put him into a disadvantage, or the reason why he made the promise does not exist anymore the prince must break his promise. However, the prince should always seem like compassionate, trustworthy, kind, guileless, and pious ruler. It is hard to achieve all of the above mentioned qualities, and also not desirable, but it will be easier for him to maintain his state if most men will believe in his virtue. The appearance of the prince and his results are sole criteria for the men to judge their ruler, which sometimes allow him to use evil to achieve the goal.
To avoid hate is the main aim for the prince. If the prince has lack of virtue he can be criticized, but he won’t be hated because of it. The major reason for hate will occur if the prince robs his subjects honor, takes their women or their property. This can lead to the internal insurrection. The prince can defend himself from this kind of attack by making sure that he has the support of people. The conspiracy will only occur if the conspirator believe that the people will be satisfied with the assassination of the ruler, otherwise he will not do it. If the prince insures a good life to its people he has all the ways to prevent any conspiracies, as there would be more chances to get informed by the people about the plan before hand. The second thing that prince has to worry about is the external threat from the foreign powers, but a powerful army will lead to strong allies that are the essential factors for preventing this sort of threat. The examples of noble and the great enterprises are the two ways for the prince to earn a prestige. Reputation of having the great abilities should be primary target for the prince.
It is essential for the prince to be able to pick the right ministers, as they form the first impressions about the prince to the guests. So, accordingly, the prince has to choose wise and loyal ministers in order to attain his image of smart person. The prince has to possess the ability to appreciate another person’s ability to understand things or the ability to understand things independently in order to know how his ministers are. A bad minister is the one that does everything for his own income rather than the princes. It is very important for the prince to maintain good control over his ministers, and acknowledge the ones that are loyal to him.
The Prince has to convince everybody that they can talk to him whenever they want, but at the same time to avoid it, as it may lead to lose of self respect. He should take advices whenever he needs them, and definitely not when others try to make him listen. If somebody hides the truth from the prince, he must punish that person in order to give everybody a lesson. No matter how intelligent the princes’ advisors are he himself has to be on control of the matters.
If we conclude the political theory that Machiavelli is presenting us we can easily se that he is deriving this theory from the believes that all men are naturally deceitful, selfish, naive and untrustworthy, who are likely to break promises, even though they respect and praise virtue, but most do not possess it themselves. These assumptions about the basic behaviors and the attitudes of the population underlie most of Machiavelli’s suggestions for the actions of princes. Although Machiavelli’s conclusions may seem disturbing, if we consider contemporary society, we might conclude that little has changed since the era of The Prince, which is a very significant piece of political theory as it was first to differ ethics from politics.
Bibliography
1. Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince (translated by George Bull). Penguin Classics, 1999
