Machiavelli The Prince Analysis

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In the passage from The Prince, Machiavelli discusses the idea of leaders coming into power through “popular favour”, where in order to maintain this, they must ensure that the people feel as though they are not oppressed. If one is starting their reign with the support of the public, this leaves them with the responsibility of keeping the people involved in their political decisions and maintain a democracy instead of a dictatorship . This comes into context through Machiavelli’s political background, as he had worked for the government, and later dedicated The Prince to Lorenzo de’ Medici, the ruler of Florence. The Medici family had a longstanding succession of rulers, with Lorenzo coming into rule in 1469, with the majority support from…show more content…
He continually relates back to the idea of taking action for the people, where every guideline of his is for the purpose of human benefit. Harvey C. Mansfield (Mansfield, 1981) asserts that “Machiavelli connects his political science to progress toward the human good”, signifying that his political agenda is one which contends the importance of the party-political side to ruling, but rather is done in the mannerisms of a popularity gala. Machiavelli characterises successful ruling in the form of successfully pleasing the people, and being subservient to their wishes and requests instead of his following his own intuition. A ruler who obeys Machiavelli’s orders is one without authentic political substance, and is only obsequious in order to maintain the power over the people as well as his status. Mansfield also states that what knowledge Machiavelli has on the government of princes “seems to be practical” (Mansfield, 1981), therefore elucidating the impression that his guidelines are notions that are apparent of ruling, and contain no real political strategy and knowledge behind it. Machiavelli’s ideas of keeping the people “well disposed towards him” and to “win over the people” are values which contribute to the benefit of the people and for personal approval, and in essence are for the purposes of “human
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