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Summary Quiz 3: The Prince (Machiavelli) Lecture and Readings
This is an in depth summary of the Prince that you need to know for quiz 3
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Lecture 5Machiavelli
● Machiavelli came from a modest background and was born in Florence
● He received a modest education
● He was an important diplomat and bureaucrat in Florentine republic
● After return of Medicis to power, Machiavellli was out and was tortured
● He started writing and The Prince was his first text
● Discourses of the ten books of Titus Livy
The Prince
● This text has been called the foundation of modern political theory
● The Prince has also been argued to be a job application
○ His intent is to write something to whoever will understand it
● Is it a description or a prescription?
○ The text uses a lot of history and empirical examples
● It is not normative in the sense of advocating moral behavior
○ “If the end is good it will always excuse the means” → the ends justify the means
● He is describing a form of normativity
○ We may call this “hypothetical necessity/instrumental rationality”
■ If you want to achieve x, you ought to do y
● Instrumental rationality always involves adjusting means to ends
Rejecting Imaginary Republics
● In a bad environment and among bad people, behaving morally is self-defeating
○ In a zero sum environment only zero sum behavior pays
○ In a better environment, better behavior would pay but Machiavelli believes that
we would never be in such an environment
○ The claim is not to always do bad
■ He says you should learn to not be good according to necessity
○ His claim is really restricted to political leaders and would be leaders
Machiavellian Theoretical Knowledge
● Distance (objectivity) is required for knowledge
● This is obtained by long experience
○ Long experience entails knowledge of history and books of history
● There is a denial of Socratic self- knowledge (the foundation of knowledge is
self-knowledge)
,Practical Knowledge: Imitating and Drilling
● Excellent leaders imitate past leaders who have also been great
● Imitating combined with good judgement that is virtue
● Leaders learn by reading about and then imitating them through books written by people
like Machiavelli
● They aim high and therefore achieve modern glory or leadership
● In practice what this involves is becoming good at war
● Great leadership means winning on the battlefield
● This includes lots of drilling, lots of modeling and lots of worst case scenario planning
Machiavellian Governance
● The leader should be feared but NOT hated
● A well established ruler must follow the rule of law with your own citizens
● If you have an enemy among the citizens then you must document it carefully before you
try to eliminate them (they should be respected)
● Even a feared leader, is required to perform governance well (protect property etc)
● Most citizens want a quiet and contented life
○ Only a few people are actually ambitious to rule (these are dangerous)
● You should encourage the sheep to be sheep-like
● A good prince encourages the rule of law, defends property, encourages trade and keeps
taxes low
● A flourishing state is a state in which the people themselves are virtuous and law-abiding
in ordinary ways
● Religion and public holidays are praised because they have a social function
● A prince keeps the people united and faith
Creative Turbulence
● Unlike the traditional philosophers, Machiavelli rejects harmony
● Machiavelli, embraces what is called “creative turbulence”
○ If you have class/social conflict then that is productive of good political
innovation
○ The consequence of that is good law
○ Unintended consequence explanation
● Patriotic moderation → on the whole, class warfare is not allowed to escalate (exile and
capital punishment were very rare)
● An enduring society must have
Tyranny
● If a leader is permitted to do evil then how can you prevent tyranny?
● Machiavelli has 3 answers to this
, ○ 1. Simple prudence, a smart ruler recognizes that be loathed or hated by the
people is dangerous (it a short term gain but makes you more unstable)
○ 2. The tyrant cannot change the meaning of our concepts.
○ 3. You can be a successful tyrant but this prince will lack glory
Fortune
● Often seems that the world is governed by fortune/luck and chance
● In order to create space for human agency, Machiavelli stipulates that fortune and chance
is not as powerful
● It is important to take precaution measures in calmer times and not during times of crises
or urgency (for example building dikes and dams)
Virtu/virtue
● Machiavellian virtue is not Christian virtue
● Machiavellian virtue is also not Platonic/Aristotelian virtue
● Machiavelian virtue is a kind of skill or a skill practice
○ Virtu “the skilled ability to anticipate and respond to fortune at any time and
in any way that is necessary. It is often the strategic application of power or
political insights.”
Observations on closing chapter Machiavelli
● Machiaveli exhorts national liberation of Italy by the Medici
● He puts this in religious terms
● There is a tremendous opportunity for exhibiting virtue and becoming Italy’s “redeemer”
○ Note the use of religious terminology and comparison with Moses
● Machiaveli believes that the liberation of Italy is a grand project and this is something
worth aspiring for.
● Machiaveli appeals to individual ambition and desire for glory of the would be national
liberator
● The project also has good moral consequences for the rest of us (the justification of this
project is pure consequentialism) it ends bad things and results in peace and prosperity
● The motives of the individual political agent need not coincide with the good
consequences visible to the social theorist
, Machiavelli
III. Composite Principalities
● This chapter focuses on the difficulties in ruling over newly acquired domains
● Men willingly change their ruler, expecting to fare better
○ This expectation induces them to take up arms against him; but they only deceive
themselves, and they learn from experience that they have made matters worse
● A prince is always compelled to injure those who have made him the new ruler,
subjecting them to the troops and imposing the endless other hardships which his new
conquest entails
● No matter how powerful one’s armies, in order to enter a country one needs the goodwill
of the inhabitants
● If the ruler wants to keep hold of his possessions, he must bear two things in mind.
○ 1. First the family of the old prince must be destroyed
○ 2. Second, he must change neither their laws nor their taxes
■ In this way, in a very short space of time the new principality will be
rolled into one with the old
● However, when states are acquired in a province differing in language, customs and
invitations then these difficulties arise
○ One of the best, most effective expedients would be fore the conqueror to go live
there in person
● For all the other measures he took, had he not gone to settle there he would have found it
impossible to hold that state
● New lands should be occupied by foreign troops and the current people that are living in
these lands will believe that their lives will also be better as a result
● However, if this is not the case then people may work against the new prince
● Even though different cultures and languages can make it difficult for a new ruler to rule
over a new domain, Machiavelli says that no change should be made in law or custom of
that new domain
● The prince should also physically live in the domain that he is ruling over because in this
way people are more easily able to talk to the prince and the prince can easier judge when
things start to go wrong
● Machiavellli also recommends that is good to protect and strengthen the weak nations
and also weaken the stronger ones
○ If you keep the weak stays weak then you can keep them on your side through
dependence
● War should never be avoided! Especially when avoiding war compromises with the
stability of a domain
● He is a strong advocate of war in a sense
● People are also motivated to minimize harm and maximize benefit to themselves
(psychological egoism)
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