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Background
Background
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) was born in Florence and worked as a government official. He is best known, however, for his work the Prince, for which he became known as the father of modern political philosophy.
Many philosophers who wrote about politics had started with the question, ‘what would an ideal state look like?’ Both Plato and Aristotle did this, for example.
Machiavelli, however, was more interested in the question of what a politician should be like, and how they should get and keep power.
The Prince appears to advocate some very vicious practices. There are some that think that the whole book is a joke.
A prince being thus obliged to know well how to act as a beast must imitate the fox and the lion, for the lion cannot protect himself from snares, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognise snares, and a lion to frighten wolves. Those that wish to be only lions do not understand this.
-Machiavelli, The PrinceSome highlights from The Prince:
There are two ways to get and keep power: through fortune and through skill: Using fortune, it is easy to get power, but hard to keep it. Using skill it is hard to get power, but easy to keep it.
There are two groups of people who politicians will need to deal with: nobles and the people: With nobles it’s easy to get power but difficult to keep it. With people it’s difficult to get power but easy to keep it
Try not to mess with the natural order – especially not people’s property. They’ll get over their Dad being killed, but not get over their inheritance being taken.
Machiavelli gives some examples of skillful leaders:
Moses killed loads of people to keep power
Agothecles of Syracuse – became governor of Syracuse, then gathered all the nobles together and killed them all at the same time.
Machiavelli says that the best thing to do is do all your evil deeds at the same time and quickly, because people will get over it
If you want to gain power by conquering somewhere, you have a choice of doing three things. You can either a) completely ruin them, b) install colonies, or c) let them keep their power but make a puppet king. The first option is the best way because it is the cleanest and most effective.
If you want to gain power through selection (i.e. being voted into power or by gradually becoming more respected), then you have to be ‘criminally’ skilful in your dealings with nobles. People are more noble than nobles, but with people you only need to have the appearance of being noble. You don’t actually have to be noble. Lies are a useful weapon in your arsenal.
Discussion
Discussion
It seems obvious to say that Machiavelli's advice seems immoral, but is it even possible to run a government without having to make difficult decisions? Without having to choose the lesser of two evils?
Obviously depending on the circumstances, don't politicians have to make decisions about who lives and who dies? What people know and what is hidden? Are such 'evils' avoidable?
Tasks
Tasks
Give an overview of the kind of advice Machiavelli offers potential politicians.
Give an objection to Machiavelli's advice.
What do you think of Machiavelli’s advice? Do you think that it is necessary to do bad things if one is a politician? Is it necessary to lie?
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