1.

BRIEF BACKGROUND

Niccolò Machiavelli was born on May 3, 1469, in Florence, Italy,

and passed his childhood peacefully, receiving the humanistic
education customary for young men of the Renaissance middle class.
He also spent two years studying business mathematics, then worked
for the next seven years in Rome for a Florentine banker. After
returning to Florence in 1494, he witnessed the expulsion of the
Medici family, oligarchic despots who had ruled Florence for decades,
and the rise of Girolamo Savanorola, a Dominican religious zealot
who took control of the region shortly thereafter.

Italy at that time became the scene of intense political conflict. The
city-states of Florence, Milan, Venice, and Naples fought for control
of Italy, as did the papacy, France, Spain, and the Holy Roman
Empire. Each of these powers attempted to pursue a strategy of
playing the other powers off of one other, but they also engaged in less
honourable practices such as blackmail and violence. These events
influenced Machiavelli’s attitudes toward government, forming the
backdrop for his later impassioned pleas for Italian unity.

Because Savonarola criticized the leadership of the Church, Pope

Alexander VI cut his reign short by excommunicating him in 1497.
The next year, at the age of twenty-nine, Machiavelli entered the
Florentine government as head of the Second Chancery and secretary
to the Council of Ten for War. In his role as chancellor, he was sent to
France on a diplomatic mission in 1500. He met regularly with Pope
Alexander and the recently crowned King Louis XII. In exchange for
a marriage annulment, Louis helped the pope establish his son, Cesare
Borgia, as the duke of Romagna. The intrigues of these three men
would influence Machiavelli’s political thought, but it was Borgia
who would do the most to shape Machiavelli’s opinions about
leadership. Borgia was a cunning, cruel, and vicious politician, and
many people despised him. Nevertheless, Machiavelli believed Borgia
had the traits necessary for any leader who would seek to unify Italy.

Meanwhile, Machiavelli helped raise and train a Florentine civil

militia in order to reduce Florence’s dependence on mercenaries. Later
that year, he served as Florentine diplomat to Pope Julius, whose
conduct as the “warrior pope” he observed firsthand. In 1512, the
Medici family regained control of Florence, and Machiavelli was
dismissed from office. A year later he was wrongly accused of
participating in a conspiracy to restore the republic, held in jail for
three weeks, and tortured on the rack. He left Florence for the quiet
town of Sant’Andrea and decided to pursue a career in writing. In
1513 he began writing his Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus
Livius, a book that focused on states controlled by a politically active
citizenry. It was not finished until 1521, mainly because he
interrupted his work on Discourses to write The Prince.

2. THINKER’S IDEAS
Although Machiavelli was many things – a historian , a councillor, a
poet – he has been marked down in history as the author of the book
THE PRINCE. In the Modern world we are all appalled by how
corrupt,sly,and dishonest many politicians are. In moods like this we
should remember the words of Niccolò Machiavelli ,who argued that
we shouldn’t think that politiciams are immoral for lying,
dissembling and manoeuvring .A good politician in Machiavellis
remarkable view is Not one who is friendly, honest and kind .It is
someone who , however occasionally dark and underhand they might
be , knows how to defend , enrich and bring honour to the State. He
wrote ,” Politics has no relations with morals.” Machiavelli wrote
that it was almost impossible to be a good politician and a good person
in the traditional Christian sense. He proposed that the overwhelming
responsibility of a good Prince is to defend the State from external and
internal threats to stable governance. When machiavelli reached the
unapproachable question of whether a Prince should be loved or feared
, he wrote that while , theoretically it was good if the leader was both
loved and obeyed , the Prince should always side with terror because
this is what ultimately keeps the people in check.He wrote,” it is
better to be feared than loved , if you cannot be both”Machiavelli’s
Christian contemporaries had suggested the Princes should be
merciful , peaceful , generous and tolerant.They thought that being a
good politician was the same as being a good Christian.But
Machiavelli argues differently. He asked his readers to dwell on the
incompatibility of Christian ethics and good governance, and
particularly referred to the case of Girolamo Savonarola ,who was a
fervent idealistic Christian, who briefly had come to be the ruler of
Florence in 1492 .He had come to power promising to build a city of
God on Earth in Florence. However Savonarola’s success could not
last because it was based on the weakness that always attends
being good in the Christian sense. It was not long before the Regime
became a threat to the corrupt Pope who’s henchmen captured ,
tortured and hung him.This , according to Machiavelli is what
happens to the nice people in politics . Rather than follow this example
, he suggested that a leader would do well to make the judicious use “
virtu “ or virtue .His concept of “virtu” for politicians involves
wisdom, strategy , strength , bravery ,and , when necessary ,
ruthlessness .He used the paradoxical phrase - “ criminal virtu “to
describe the necessary ability of leaders to be cruel in the name of the
State.It describes calculated “criminal acts” that can help one get
ahead in politics.Machiavelli’s book( especially chapter VIII which is
called “Chapter viii- Concerning those who have obtained a
principality by wickedness”)describes how a Prince secures power
through immoral deeds and cruel ,criminal actions , such as executing
political rivals. According to Machiavelli “ He who neglects what is
done , for what ought to be done , sooner affects his ruin than his
preservation .” Beyond that Machiavelli describes the ramifications of
criminal virtue and how to keep up appearances despite such “
wickedness” However these “ criminal acts “ should be done swiftly
and should not be repeated too often , lest a reputation of mindless
brutality builds up
3. IMPLICATIONS

The most revolutionary implication of “The Prince “ and Machivelli’s

political thought is its separation of politics and ethics. Classical
political theory traditionally linked political law with a higher, moral
law. In contrast, Machiavelli argues that political action must always
be considered in light of its practical consequences rather than some
lofty ideal.
Another striking feature of The Prince is that it is far less theoretical
than its contemporary literature on political thought and theory .
Many earlier thinkers had constructed hypothetical notions of ideal or
natural states, but Machiavelli treated historical evidence
pragmatically to ground The Prince in real situations. Machiavelli’s
political thought and theory can be thought of as more of a practical
guide and words of advice for a ruler or a politician than an abstract
and vague treatise of political philosophy.
Machiavelli’s ideas also distinguishes itself on the subject of free will.
Medieval and Renaissance thinkers often looked to religion or ancient
authors for explanations of plagues, famines, invasions, and other
calamities; they considered the actual prevention of such disasters to
be beyond the scope of human power. In The Prince, when
Machiavelli expresses an extraordinary confidence in the power of
human self-determination and affirms his belief in free will as opposed
to divine destiny.
Since they were first published, Machiavelli’s ideas have been
oversimplified , distorted and criticised. His political thought is
unfairly defined solely in terms of “The Prince” . The adjective
“Machiavellian” is used to mean “manipulative,” “deceiving,” or
“merciless.” But Machiavelli’s Discourses on Livy, a work
considerably longer and more developed than The Prince, expounds
republican themes of patriotism, public virtue, and open political
participation.

4. CONCLUSION
Machiavelli is considered the first political scientist and advisor in
history who argued in a very systematic way and who let aside the
normative (moral or ethical) values. He described the phenomenon of
political power, how to reach it and how to keep it up. He was the first
to analyse political leadership. Even if some of his advices in "The
Prince" seem ruthless or anti-democratic in our modern
understanding of politics, it should not be forgotten that he wrote this
book in a historical context, where the clear analysis of political power
was something totally new. I'm not sure if his idea can be related to
the concept of "good governance" as it is understood today. It was
more on "efficient governance" and “ good leadership” . Nevertheless,
in his second big book "Discorsi"(Discourses on Livy) he argued for a
republic and not for an authoritarian state.