Machiavelli Extracts:
LINK: Machiavelli Notes
Machiavelli is best known for “The Prince”, which advocates cruelty and
ruthlessness on the part of would-be rulers. But it is important to note that
he was not opposed to democracy or justice:
From the Discourses on Livy:
“For a prince, who knows no other
control but his own will is like a madman, and a people that can do as it
pleases will hardly be wise. If now we compare a prince who is controlled by
laws, and a people that is [restricted] by them, we shall find more virtue in the
people than in the prince; and if we compare them when both are freed from such
control, we shall see that the people are guilty of fewer excesses than the
prince, and that the errors of the people are of less importance, and therefore
most easily remedied. For a licentious and mutinous people may easily be
brought back to good conduct by the influence and persuasion of a good man, but
an evil-minded prince is not amenable to such influences, and therefore there
is no other remedy against him but cold steel… The excesses of the people are
directed against those whom they suspect of interfering with the public good;
whilst those of princes are against apprehended interference with their
individual interests. The general prejudice against the people results from the
fact that everybody can freely and fearlessly speak ill of them in mass, even
whilst they are at the height of their power; but a prince can only be spoken
of with the greatest circumspection and apprehension.” See Ball and
Dagger 1999. p 30.
From The Prince:
1. Above all, The
Prince is a study in the nature of power-relationships:
“to comprehend fully the nature
of the people, one must be a prince; and to comprehend fully the nature of
princes one must be an ordinary citizen”. (Letter to Lorenzo de’ Medici
– Machiavelli’s dedication of The Prince).
2.
It is also a “manual” for would-be conquerors:
In taking over a new state the
prince should expect opposition: “difficulties may arise” – “men willingly
change their ruler, expecting to fare better… but they only deceive themselves,
and they learn from experience that they have made matters worse.” This is because “you are opposed by all those you
have injured in occupying the principality, and you cannot keep the friendship
of those who have put you there.”
Consequently “a prince is always compelled to
injure those who have made him the new ruler.” (Ch III, first
paragraph) and “whoever is responsible for another’s becoming powerful ruins himself,
because this power is brought into being either by ingenuity or by force, and
both of these are suspect to the one who has become powerful.” (Ch III,
last sentence).
If
the prince “wants to keep hold of his new possessions, he must bear two things in
mind: first, that the family of the old prince must be destroyed; next, that he
must change neither their laws nor their taxes.” (Ch III, third
paragraph)
“For always… to enter a conquered
territory one needs the goodwill of the inhabitants” (Ch III, paragraph
1) and “it is a very easy matter to hold on to [the people] when they are not
used to freedom.” (Ch III, paragraph 3) whereas: “in republics there is more life,
more hatred [of a conqueror], a greater desire for revenge; the memory of their
ancient liberty does not and cannot let them rest.” (Ch V, last
paragraph).
“So
long as their old ways of life are undisturbed [viz. by a conqueror] and there
is no divergence in customs, [i.e. so long as a conqueror does not try to
change the way they live] men live quietly.” (Ch III, paragraph 3)
“A city used to freedom can be
more easily ruled through its own citizens… than in any other way.” (Ch
III First paragraph). And: “Whoever becomes the master of a city
accustomed to freedom, and does not destroy it, may be expected to be destroyed
himself; because, where there is a rebellion, such a city justifies itself by
calling on the name of liberty and its ancient institutions…”
If
new territories with different languages etc are acquired, “… to hold them one must be very
fortunate and very assiduous. One of the best, most effective expedients would
be for the conqueror to go to live there in person”!! If he does this, “the
subjects are satisfied because they have direct recourse to the prince; and so
they have more reason to love him…” “being on the spot, one can detect trouble
at the start and deal with it immediately…” (Ch III, paragraph 4).
But
it is better to “establish settlements in one or two places.” “Settlements
do not cost much, and the prince can found them and maintain them at little or
no personal expense. He injures only those from whom he takes land and houses
to give to the new inhabitants, and these victims form a tiny minority, and can
never do any harm since they remain poor and scattered.” (Chapter III,
paragraph 5).
3. Machiavelli displays a negative (or
realistic?) view of human nature:
People are: “creatures
of circumstance…”
“…
men must be either pampered or crushed, because they can get revenge for small
injuries but not for fatal ones. So any injury a prince does a man should be of
a kind that there is no fear of revenge.” (Ch III, paragraph 5).
A
ruler whose country has other powers on its borders should “make himself the protector and
leader of the smaller neighbouring powers, and he should endeavour to weaken
those which are strong”?! (Ch III, paragraph 6).
There is a deep human
motivation for power: “The wish to acquire more is admittedly a
very natural and common thing; and when men succeed in this they are always
praised rather than condemned. But when they lack the ability to do so and yet
want to acquire more at all costs, they deserve condemnation for their
mistakes.”(Ch III paragraph 12).
“there
is nothing more difficult to arrange, more doubtful of success, and more
dangerous to carry through than initiating changes in a state’s constitution.
The innovator makes enemies of all those who prospered under the new order…” To
deal with this, the ruler should use force: “all armed prophets have
conquered, and unarmed prophets come to grief.” “The populace is by nature
fickle; it is easy to persuade them of something, but difficult to confirm them
in that persuasion” – so the ruler should try to arrange things so that
“they
can be made to believe by force.” (Ch VI, paragraph 4) (See further on
“arms” below)
“One
can make this generalisation about men: they are ungrateful, fickle, liars, and
deceivers, they shun danger and are greedy for profit; while you treat them
well, they are yours… 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 that they are, break when it is to their
advantage to do so…” (Chapter
XVII, paragraph 3)
4. Machiavelli is
perceptive about the nature of effective political power:
“Governments set up overnight,
like everything in nature whose growth is forced, lack strong roots and
ramifications. So they are destroyed in the first bad spell.” (Ch VII Paragraph
1).
Cesare Borgia laid “strong… foundations” for power by “destroying
all the families of the rulers he had despoiled, thus depriving the pope of the
opportunity of using them against him; second, by winning over all the
patricians in Rome… in order to hold the pope in check; third by controlling
the College of Cardinals as far as he could…” etc! He is praised because “if he could not make whom he
wanted pope, he could at least keep the papacy from going to one he did not
want.”
5. But power is
different to glory, and cruelty must be used “economically”:
Conquering a state by crime (e.g.
murdering the existing political leaders!) is risky, and “it cannot be called prowess to
kill fellow citizens, to betray friends, to be treacherous, pitiless,
irreligious. These ways can win a prince power but not glory.” (Ch VIII
Paragraph 2).
“For
I believe it is a question of cruelty used well or badly. We can say that
cruelty is used well (if it is permissible to talk in this way of evil) when it
is employed once and for all, and one’s safety depends on it, and then it is
not persisted in but as far as possible turned to the good of one’s subjects.” (Ch VIII Paragraph
4).
Cont’d…
“Violence
should be inflicted once for all; people will then forget what it tastes like
and so be less resentful. Benefits should be conferred gradually; and in that
way they will taste better.”
(Ch VIII Last paragraph).
6. A ruler needs
the support of people:
“A man who becomes prince with the help of the nobles finds it more
difficult to maintain his position than one who does so with the help of the
people… The people are more honest in their intentions than the nobles are,
because the latter want to oppress the people, while they only want not to be
oppressed.” (Ch IX Paragraph 2)
“Therefore a wise prince must
devise ways by which his citizens are always in all circumstances dependent on
him and on his authority; and then they will always be faithful to him.”
”So the best fortress that exists
is to avoid being hated by the people.” (Chapter XX: On Fortresses,
last paragraph).
7. On religion:
Using religion one can take over a state, because religion holds
the people and the ruler together. “These (“Ecclesiastical”) principalities
alone are secure and happy. But as they are sustained by higher powers which
the human mind cannot comprehend, I shall not argue about them; they are
exalted and maintained by God.” (Ch XI)
8. On the role of
“arms”:
“The main foundations of every
state… are good laws and good arms; and because you cannot have good laws
without good arms, and where there are good arms, good laws inevitably follow…” (Chapter XII, paragraph 1)
“Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous… Mercenaries are
disunited, thirsty for power, undisciplined, and disloyal; they are brave among
their friends and cowards before the enemy…” and so on! (Chapter XII,
paragraph 2).
(Opening of Chapter XIV): “A
prince, therefore, should have no other object or thought, nor acquire skill in
anything, except war, its organisation and discipline. The art of war is all
that is expected of a ruler…”
9.
On utopias:
“Many have dreamed up republics and principalities which have never in truth been know to exist; the gulf between how one should live and how one does live is so wide that a man who neglects what is actually done for what should be done learns the way to self-destruction rather than to self-preservation.”
10.
How a ruler should behave – the importance of appearing to be moral:
A prince must “learn
how not to be virtuous, and to make use of this or not according to need.”
(Ch XV, first paragraph).
Machiavelli warns a ruler “to escape the evil reputation
attached to those vices which could lose him his state” – (Ch XV, paragraph
2)
“A
prince should try to avoid, above all else, being despised and hated…” (Chapter XVI end)
“…a
prince should want to have a reputation for compassion rather than cruelty… but
a prince should not worry if he incurs reproach for his cruelty so long as he
keeps his subjects united and loyal. (Chapter XVII, paragraph 1)
“[then
there is the question] whether it is better to be loved than feared, or the
reverse. The answer is that one would like to be both one and the other; but
because it is difficult to combine them, it is far better to be feared than to
be loved, if you cannot be both. (Chapter XVII, paragraph 3)
“The
prince should nonetheless make himself feared in such a way that, if he is not
loved, at least he escapes being hated.” (Chapter XVII, paragraph 4).
Chapter
XIX is also concerned with the need to avoid contempt and hatred. This includes
the cynical suggestion that rulers should “delegate to others the enactment of
unpopular measures and keep in their own hands the distribution of favours”.
(Ch XIX)
11. There must be a different standard of
morality for rulers than for ordinary people.
“There
are two ways of fighting: by law or by force. The first way is natural to men,
and the second to beasts. But as the first way often proves inadequate one must
needs have recourse to the second. So a prince must know how to make a nice use
of the beast and the man.” (Ch
XVIII paragraph 2)
“One
must know how to colour one’s actions and to be a great liar and deceiver. Men
are so simple, and so much creatures of circumstance, that the deceiver will
always find someone ready to be deceived. (Paragraph 3)
“In
the actions of all men, and especially of princes, where there is no court of
appeal, one judges by the result. So let a prince set about the task of
conquering and maintaining his state; his methods will always be judged
honourable and will be universally praised. The common people are always
impressed by appearances and results.” (Paragraph 6)
“Nothing brings a prince more prestige than great campaigns and
striking demonstrations of his personal abilities.” (Chapter XXI, first
paragraph).
12. Machiavelli on
rulers and “fortuna” and “virtu”:
“I
believe that it is probably true that fortune is the arbiter of half the things
we do, leaving the other half to be controlled by ourselves.” (Chapter XXV, paragraph 1).
“As
fortune is changeable, while men are obstinate in their ways, men prosper so
long as fortune and policy are in accord; and when they clash they fail. I hold
strongly to this: that is it better to be impetuous than circumspect; because
fortune is a woman and if she is to be submissive it is necessary to beat and coerce
her.” (Chapter XXV last
sentence).
See
also Chapter VI: “the less a man has
relied on fortune the stronger he has made his position.” (Paragraph 2)
The
reason that leaders such as Cyrus,
Learning outcomes:
As a result of this session, learners should be able, when questioned, to:
- situate Machiavelli historically
- describe Machiavelli’s ideas on:
the problem of the acquisition and retention of power in different circumstances; human nature, and how it contributes to the success or failure of a ruler;
the morality of rulers;
the role of the military in politics;
“fate”.
- give their own opinion of Machiavelli’s stance
- give an opinion on the relevance of Machiavelli’s ideas in the modern world.