The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli
"It is said that God is always for the big battalions."
-Voltaire
Editor's Note: Power. It refers to influence as well as the ability to influence. It paints virtually every human relationship at one time or another, and especially the relationships among actors that exist in a political setting. The fact of politics – and there is none more elementary – is that agents who possess power get what they want, while those who do not possess it do not get what they want. Politics, said Harold Lasswell, is a process that prescribes "who gets what, when, how."
One of the clearest and most disturbing lessons of the human experience is that individuals who hold too much power are likely to abuse it. While it can be used to create cities, it can also be made to destroy them; while it can be used to free men, it can also be made to enslave them. "Power corrupts," said nineteenth century British historian Lord Acton, "and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
Niccolo Machiavelli was born in Florence in 1469. To this day he is regarded as one of the foremost authorities on the use and abuse of power, and his book The Prince serves as a manual for scholars and decision-makers. Some of The Prince’s judgments are direct and even objectionable: "There are two ways of fighting," it tells, "one with laws and the other with arms. The first is the way of men; the second is the style of beasts. But since very often the first does not suffice, it is necessary to turn to the second."
Hannah Arendt said that Machiavelli "was the first to visualize the rise of a purely secular realm whose laws and principles of action were independent of the teachings of the Church, and of moral standards, transcending the sphere of human affairs." He advised people who enter politics, in short, how not to be good. In On Revolution Arendt calls Machiavelli "the spiritual father of revolution."The Prince outraged the Italian public when it came out. Although Machiavelli is identified with fraud and authoritarianism, in actuality he favored clean and responsive government. He wrote The Prince as a guide for the ruling Medicis, but the family distanced themselves from it.
Following is Chapter XV of The Prince. Sentiments of particular interest are highlighted in blue.
The Prince
Chapter XV
Concerning Things For Which Men, And Especially Princes,
Are Praised Or Blamed
IT REMAINS now to see what ought to be the rules of conduct for a prince towards subject and friends. And as I know that many have written on this point, I expect I shall be considered presumptuous in mentioning it again, especially as in discussing it I shall depart from the methods of other people. But, it being my intention to write a thing which shall be useful to him who apprehends it, it appears to me more appropriate to follow up the real truth of a matter than the imagination of it; for many have pictured republics and principalities which in fact have never been known or seen, because how one lives is so far distant from how one ought to live, that he who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, sooner effects his ruin than his preservation; for a man who wishes to act entirely up to his professions of virtue soon meets with what destroys him among so much that is evil.
Hence it is necessary for a prince wishing to hold his own to know how to do wrong, and to make use of it or not according to necessity. Therefore, putting on one side imaginary things concerning a prince, and discussing those which are real, I say that all men when they are spoken of, and chiefly princes for being more highly placed, are remarkable for some of those qualities which bring them either blame or praise; and thus it is that one is reputed liberal, another miserly, using a Tuscan term (because an avaricious person in our language is still he who desires to possess by robbery, whilst we call one miserly who deprives himself too much of the use of his own); one is reputed generous, one rapacious; one cruel, one compassionate; one faithless, another faithful; one effeminate and cowardly, another bold and brave; one affable, another haughty; one lascivious, another chaste; one sincere, another cunning; one hard, another easy; one grave, another frivolous; one religious, another unbelieving, and the like. And I know that every one will confess that it would be most praiseworthy in a prince to exhibit all the above qualities that are considered good; but because they can neither be entirely possessed nor observed, for human conditions do not permit it, it is necessary for him to be sufficiently prudent that he may know how to avoid the reproach of those vices which would lose him his state; and also to keep himself, if it be possible, from those which would not lose him it; but this not being possible, he may with less hesitation abandon himself to them. And again, he need not make himself uneasy at incurring a reproach for those vices without which the state can only be saved with difficulty, for if everything is considered carefully, it will be found that something which looks like virtue, if followed, would be his ruin; whilst something else, which looks like vice, yet followed brings him security and prosperity.
SOURCE: Constitution.org