Prince And Discourses Essays - Niccol Machiavelli, The Prince

Prince And Discourses Although many of the same ideas are contained in both The Prince and the Discourses, these two works differ significantly in emphasis because they discuss two different types of political systems. The Prince, is one of the first examinations of politics and science from a purely scientific and rational perspective. In The Prince, Machiavelli was concerned with a principality, a state in which one ruler or a small elite governs a mass of subjects who have no active political life. Machiavelli addresses a monarchical ruler, the Medici, and offered advice designed to keep that ruler in power. He recommended policies that would discourage mass political activism and channel the subjects energies into private pursuits. Machiavelli's aim was to persuade the monarch that he could best preserve his power by using violence carefully and economically, by respecting the persons, property, and traditions of his subjects, and by promoting material prosperity. The ruling Prince should be the sole authority determining every aspect of the state and put in effect policies which serves his best interests. These interests were gaining, maintaining, and expanding his political. However, Machiavelli did not feel that a Prince should mistreat his citizens. This suggestion is once again to serve the Prince's best interests. If a prince can not be both feared and loved, Machiavelli suggests, it would be better for him to be feared by the citizens within his own principality. He makes the generalization that men are, "...ungrateful, fickle, liars, and deceivers, they shun danger and are greedy for profit; while you treat them well they are yours". He characterizes men as being self centered and not willing to act in the best interest of the state,"[and when the prince] is in danger they turn against [him]". Machiavelli reinforces the prince's need to be feared by stating: "Men worry less about doing an injury to one who makes himself loved than to one who makes himself feared. The bond of love is one which men, wretched creatures they are, break when it is to their advantage to do so; but fear is strengthened by a dread of punishment which is always effective". In order to win honor, Machiavelli suggests that a prince must be readily willing to deceive the citizens. One way is to "...show his esteem for talent actively encouraging the able and honoring those who excel in their professions...so that they can go peaceably about their business". By encouraging citizens to excel at their professions he would also be encouraging them to "...increase the prosperity of the their state". These measures, though carried out in deception, would bring the prince honor and trust amongst the citizens, especially those who were in the best positions to oppose him. Machiavelli actively promoted a secular form of politics. He laid aside the medieval conception "of the state as a necessary creation for humankind's spiritual, material, and social well being". In such a state,"[a] ruler was justified in his exercise of political power only if it contributed to the common good of the people he served, [and] the ethical side of a prince's activity...ought to [be] based on Christian moral principles...." Machiavelli believed a secular form of government to be a more realistic type. His views were to the benefit of the prince, in helping him maintain power rather than to serve to the well being of the citizens. Machiavelli promoted his belief by stating: "The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among those who are not virtuous. Therefore, if a prince wants to maintain his rule he must learn not to be so virtuous, and to make use of this or not according to need". While The Prince is Machiavelli's best known work, it is The Discourses, which portray the most about him. The Prince was just a pamphlet dashed off to gain influence with the Medici, but in The Discourses he sought to include his entire system of politics. In the Discourses, Machiavelli was mainly concerned with a republic, a state collectively controlled by a politically active citizenry. Depending on their institutional arrangements, republics could be either aristocratic or democratic. Machiavelli advocated a democratic constitution modeled after ancient Rome. In the Discourses his concern was to preserve the liberty and independence of a self-governing citizenry. He emphasized the idea that a republic needed to foster a spirit of patriotism and civic virtue among its citizens if it were to survive. In addition Machiavelli rejected the traditional republican theory that social harmony and unity were essential to