Niccolo Machiavelli had been Secretary and Second Chancellor to the Florentine Republic from 1498 but, after Lorenzo de Medici regained control of Florence with help from Pope Julius II and an army of Spanish troops, he was dismissed from his post, tortured for his role in the creation of the Florentine Republic, and sent into exile. It was during his time in exile that Machiavelli began writing the treatise that would ensure his place in the development of political philosophy and conduct.
The Prince
By far the best known of Machiavelli’s treatise is The Prince, a guide to the acquiring and keeping of power.
Since Machiavelli lived during a time of immense political upheaval in Florence, he heavily emphasises the need for stability in a principality if the prince is to maintain power for any length of time. Effectively, The Prince was written primarily as a guide for the Prince to retain his personal power and only secondarily as a guide for preserving the principality itself.
The Prince is a particularly controversial work of political philosophy since, according to Machiavelli, the greatest moral good is a stable state and so therefore any action to protect the stability of the country is justified, even if such an action would be cruel to the population of that country. Machiavelli does, however, strongly suggest that the prince should not be hated. He states that ‘a wise prince should establish himself on that which is his own control and not in that of others; he must endeavour to avoid hatred’. He then goes on to issue the famous advice that ‘it is best to be both feared and loved; however, if one cannot be both, it is better to be feared than loved’.
Theories of Power
Since Machiavelli did not intend his treatise to be a scholarly work of political theory, he wrote The Prince to prove his own proficiency in the art of the state and to offer practical, easily understandable advice to Lorenzo de Medici on how to keep power.
The Prince is concerned with autocratic regimes rather than republics although Machiavelli does discuss his ideas on republics in other works, most notably The Discourses. Machiavelli therefore begins The Prince by discussing the various types of principalities and princes and, in doing so, constructs an outline for the rest of the book. He goes on to explain how a prince can maintain his power in a newly created or annexed principality where he is not familiar with the people and introduces the main concerns of The Prince – power politics, warcraft and popular goodwill – in summary form.
At the heart of The Prince is Machiavelli offering practical advice on a variety of matters that will concern any prince, such as the various routes to power, how to acquire and hold new states, how to with internal insurrection, how to make alliances and how to maintain a strong military. In discussing these matters, Machiavelli’s own views on free will, morality and human nature are touched upon.
The Prince then moves on to a discussion of Machiavelli’s view that lofty ideals translate into bad government. Machiavelli suggests that certain values can be admired for their own sake but that for a prince to act in accordance with virtue is often detrimental to the good of the state. Similarly, he feels that certain vices can be frowned upon but that vicious actions are sometimes indispensible for a prince to maintain his power. Effectively, the appearance of virtue is seen as more important that the actuality of virtue since that can sometimes be a liability.
The final sections of The Prince link the topics and theories previously discussed within the historical context of Italy’s disunity. Machiavelli discusses the failings of previous rulers and concludes by suggesting that it is Lorenzo de Medici who has the power and strength to restore Italy’s pride.
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
(Translated by George Bull)
ISBN 978-0140449150, Penguin Classics, 2004, £5.99, pp 144
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