Introduction
Born on 1469 in Florence Niccolo Machiavelli a government Clerk who quickly rose through the government ranks reached the position of secretary of the magistracy by 1500. Machiavelli was assigned his first diplomatic job to France. (Machiavelli, pg 120)He learnt the effect of having one prince to rule a united country. On arrival back home, Machiavelli found Florence on the verge of corrupts. He visited Cesare Borgia twice and found out that Cesare Borgia had avenged himself by killing two captains in Sinigaglia, he became a witness and wrote an account of the killings. “On the manner adopted by the Duke valentinoto kill vitellozzo.” (http://www.emachiavelli.com/The%20Prince%20and%20Machiavelli%20with%20Quotes.htm).
The Machiavelli opportunistic nature made him push for the formation of state militia, he claimed that troops from on land serve better common mercenary troops, and a council in charge of militia was formed with him as the head. Another opportunity rose in 1508 when Machiavelli was to test his militia. Machiavelli indicates on the uniqueness of the prince on taking control of other lands and controlling them, he disregards all moral and ethical values. The advices of Machiavelli are not commonly given to leaders in public offices though they are practical and give the office holder more power and give the republic less troubles. Machiavelli discusses four ways of acquiring more land; by one’s own arms and virtue, inequity, fortune and other arms. He indicates that using one own arms and virtue is the best way because one virtue rules the principality wisely. http://www.emachiavelli.com/The%20Prince%20and%20Machiavelli%20with%20Quotes.htm
To Machiavelli principality means manliness and strength. Those acquired by fortune, either through wealth do not get enough stability to rule. He advocates the need for evil to acquire power and gives some example of Agathocles also of Syracuse. He discusses the qualities to apply in order to maintain the best control, these are military knowledge, trustworthiness, to be loved or feared and a bad or a good reputation. Machiavelli supports evil over the good he argues that evil qualities are considered unethical but supports them for the purpose of political powers. Machiavelli gives information on how to deal with money he indicates that to continue to be generous one must tax the people heavily to gain more money, beating the rationale of being generous.
Machiavelli also indicate that it is better to be loved or feared and in his conclusion he indicates that it is better to be both, but since one can only obtain one of the qualities it is better to be feared however one should not be hated, he is very unethical and supports his argument by saying that a prince must not care about the infamy of cruelty in order to keep his subject faithful. The principal of obtaining good reputation are major in his book ‘The prince. Page 85’
"...above all a prince must scheme to give himself the fame of a great man and of excellent judgment in every action. A prince is also esteemed when he is a true friend and a true enemy, that is to say, when he comes out in favor of one against another without hesitation." (Machiavelli. Pg 85)
Machiavelli advocates to leaders to keep away from flatter because it is hard to tell when compliments are true and from whom to get true information.
Works Cited
http://www.emachiavelli.com/The%20Prince%20and%20Machiavelli%20with%20Quotes.htm
Niccolò Machiavelli. The Prince: New York, NY Ballantine Books, 1995.
