Machiavelli The Prince Analysis

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
Likewise to Machiavelli’s words, Lorenzo Medici kept this support intact by making minimal change to the communal constitution, thus removing the threat of oppression that the public may have felt. He kept intact the municipal courts, therefore elucidating the impression that he wished to keep a democracy instead of a dictatorship, which would’ve laid well with the people who feel as though they have a say. This therefore ensured that the people remained “well disposed” towards him, as he did not rule with the mannerisms of a dictatorship, but rather made sure that the people did not feel oppressed or insignificant. By ruling in a way that pleased the people he maintained the popular favour, thus enabling him to reign successfully. Hence in The Prince, Machiavelli depicts the guidelines on how to rule when brought in through popular favour, where the essential factor is to adjust your political agenda to a system where the people feel as though they have freedom. They should feel as though the ruler is advancing the country with them, and not enforcing rules on them for his personal gain and advantage, thus a democracy instead of a
Mary G. Dietz (Dietz, 1986) argues that The Prince “dedicates itself to maintaining a princedom”, as it is in fact it is written for Lorenzo de’ Medici, but solely for the benefit of Medici maintaining his power and control, instead of guiding him on how to effectively rule to the advantage of the country. As a means of this, Machiavelli is accused of deceiving Lorenzo as his guidelines are not for the purposes of running a Republican government, which would be recognised by the Republicans, and thus would “lead Lorenzo to disaster” (Dietz, 1986). Machiavelli’s strategy of winning over the people is beneficial for the sake of the preservation of Medici’s political status as Emperor, and thus would lead to him being recognised by the people as a leader who is only willing to “protect them” in order to stay in power and in the popular favour. This is therefore misleading Lorenzo into taking “actions that will jeopardize his power and bring about his demise” (Dietz, 1986), and would instead be demoting his reign instead of extending. Dietz presumes that The Prince is intentionally deceiving Lorenzo due to the fact that “Machiavelli was a decided enemy of Medici” (Dietz, 1986), following his exile from France under Medici’s reign, and therefore was a form of revenge. As a result, the purpose of Machiavelli’s words, in which he