Machiavelli's The Prince: Supporting The Florentine Republic

Machiavelli’s interpretation of human nature was greatly shaped by his belief in God. In his writings, Machiavelli conceives that humans were given free will by God, and the choices made with such freedom established the innate flaws in humans. Based on that, he attributes the successes and failure of princes to their intrinsic weaknesses, and directs his writing towards those faults. His works are rooted in how personal attributes tend to affect the decisions one makes and focuses on the singular commanding force of power. Fixating on how the prince needs to draw people’s support, Machiavelli emphasizes the importance of doing what is best for the greater good. He proposed that working toward a selfish goal, instead of striving towards a better state, should warrant punishment. Machiavelli is a practical person and always thought of pragmatic ways to approach situations, applying to his notions regarding politics and

Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince give the world an insight on his thought about those who rule, virtue, military power, and human nature. He elaborates on his ideal prince who must take power, but also maintain power. The Prince is extremely relevant in modern society and often looked upon as the beginning of modern political thinking. Machiavelli gives this prince an outline of the tools needed to maintain power and reinforces these ideas by giving examples of other leader’s successes and failures. Machiavelli believes that the prince must complete understand the balance between war and government. Understanding this balance and being fluent in both politics and war is crucial for maintaining power. Politicians today still use some of the tactics given by

expenditure that is a proposed annually. It is a proposal spending plan not the final decision.

Niccolò Machiavelli was an activist of analyzing power. He believed firmly in his theories and he wanted to persuade everyone else of them as well. To comment on the common relationship that was seen between moral goodness and legitimate authority of those who held power, Machiavelli said that authority and power were essentially coequal.9 He believed that whomever had power obtained the right to command; but goodness does not ensure power. This implied that the only genuine apprehension of the administrative power was the attainment and preservation of powers which indirectly guided the maintenance of the state. That, to him, should have been the objective of all leaders. Machiavelli believed that one should do whatever it took, during the given circumstance, to keep his people in favor of him and to maintain the state. Thus, all leaders should have both a sly fox and ravenous wolf inside of him prepared to release when necessary.10

Life in the high middle ages, between 1000 and 1300 A.D., had two kinds of communities, manorial villages and towns. The major difference in these two distinct types of communities was the freedom and rights of the people. In the manorial villages you had lords who owned large portions of land. The vassals who entered into a military obligation with the lords, in exchange for land and protection. Finally, serfs who were a class of people that worked their lord’s land as half slave and half freeman. Vassals were more of an employee and the serfs were little more than a slave because they were bound to the lord’s land. The serfs could not leave or do anything without the lord’s permission and most of the time they had to pay fees to be granted the permissions they requested. In contrast the townspeople elected their officials, had freedom to choose a careers, they move about where they liked, and could acquire training and schooling. Townspeople were in fact free and not absolutely controlled by a lord. As for the manorial villages, the lords had all the power and had absolute control over all the actions and work of the vassals and serfs.

Author’s Purpose and Intended Audience: While Machiavelli 's writings can appeal to a wide international audience, Italian political and military leaders were his intended audience, especially those in turbulent city states. Although many of his concepts touch on lower level politics and tactical level operations, a majority of ideas are better suited for

The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli, is a novel describing how to acquire, rule, and build up a nation. Essentially, the novel acts as a “how to” guide instructing the reader on the steps it takes to build an everlasting empire. The novel itself is directed towards prince Lorenzo de’ Medici, who took over Italy in December of 1469 after his father, Piero, passed away. In the novel, Machiavelli includes many pieces of information, which he believes are completely true in hopes that one-day Italy will be saved. To prove his point throughout the book, Machiavelli incorporates many historical facts about previous mistakes that other rulers have made. He uses historical examples from

Niccolo di Bernardo dei Machiavelli was actually a Republican that seems to me after reading “The Prince”, wrote with both a liberal and conservative feel. He seemed to examine the methods by which a state could exert their power in which the ends would justify the means in their process of preserving law and order. By giving examples, Machiavelli describes how the main purpose of being a prince is wielding ones pure power for revenge, glory and survival, and he justifies the use of immorality to achieve that purpose. “He who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, sooner effects his ruin than his preservation” therefore he claims “the end justifies the means” (Machiavelli).

Niccolo Machiavelli was the first to clearly decipher politics from ethics by studying politics in such depth and thought. He created the basis of what politics should be and how they are runned for today. His book The Prince is primarily a handbook for all rulers to follow to be the most successful in their reign. His book is considered political realism which means he speaks about only the truth of politics, so it can be used for the practice of governing. Machiavelli’s book is the handbook for obtaining and maintaining power even for today’s modern politics.

For the prince, however, the broader goals were unity and stability in the long term. In Machiavelli’s time Italy was at a turning point between fragmentation and unity and he wanted to see the latter option succeed. Power for the prince and that power maintenance is what characterizes Machiavelli’s advice within “The Prince”. And from this advice includes that a prince should do anything and everything within his power to secure his authority for the future.

Relying on the needs of the society of that time, Machiavelli comes to the conclusion that the most important task is the formation of a single Italian state (Machiavelli 15). Developing his thoughts, the author comes to the following inference: only a prince can become a leader capable of leading people and building a unified state. It is not a concrete historical personality but someone abstract, symbolic, possessing such qualities that in the aggregate are inaccessible to any living ruler. That is why Machiavelli devotes most of his research to the issue of what qualities should the prince possess to fulfill the historical task of developing a new state. The written work is constructed strictly logically and objectively. Even though the image of an ideal prince is abstract, Machiavelli argues that he should be ruthless, deceiving, and selfish.

analogy between Maxim de Winter and Bluebeard is that both characters hide a dark secret . 37

With the number of countries that have switched to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for their financial reporting, as well as the continued efforts made between the IFRS and US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP), it is evident that international convergence is an overall appealing idea for global reporting. With that said, for decades now US GAAP has worked with IFRS to create a universal standard; and while progress has been made to diminish variances between the standards, there are still large, if not unattainable efforts ahead of us. The hype over a proposed uniform set of global accounting standards appears to be stunted by the lost efforts in the convergence project between the US GAAP and IFRS. As the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) moves forward with its standards setting, there must be a reevaluation of the goal for reporting standards and efforts with the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).

Machiavelli 's works initiated political and legal ideology of modern times. His political doctrine is free from theology; it is based on a study of the activities of contemporary governments, the experience of the Ancient World, on the

In essence, Machiavelli’s ideal principality sustains a genuine sense of morality behind the violence that “must be subjected in order to maintain stability.” Looking at his plans subjectively,