Machiavelli's Essay 'The Prince'
Our Machiavellian Government
In his essay “The Prince”, Machiavelli writes of certain qualities a leader must have in order to optimally govern his country. America’s own government seems to adhere to the same sort of ideas that Machiavelli writes about in this essay. His ideas have been shown to be timeless, and many actions of the United States government provide a good example of Machiavellian ideas in practice in the modern world.
One of the central ideas that Machiavelli promotes is that the end justifies the means.
This means that the prince, or in this case the government of the United States, should do whatever it takes to facilitate the desired results. While Machiavelli would see immorality as a healthy part of government, the government of the United States would evidently disagree, as shown by the condemnation of Richard Nixon’s actions and his resignation from the presidency caused by the Watergate scandal in 1972. Machiavellian thinking would help explain why Nixon considered illegal wiretapping and other unlawful activities to be acceptable in order to help him obtain his goal of re-election.
Machiavelli’s fondness for dishonesty is also evident in his belief that a prince should say he will do one thing in order to make his people happy, and then do something entirely …show more content…
He maintains that in order to retain a strong relationship with his people, thriftiness and frugality are of utmost importance, and excess taxation should be avoided at all costs. Machiavelli states that a prince who is economical will eventually have enough money to spend defending his country and on other projects, and will not need to tax his people excessively. He would most likely argue that the current economic crisis in America was caused by money used irresponsibly, and that the United States government should have been more careful with its
In his essay “The Prince”, Machiavelli writes of certain qualities a leader must have in order to optimally govern his country. America’s own government seems to adhere to the same sort of ideas that Machiavelli writes about in this essay. His ideas have been shown to be timeless, and many actions of the United States government provide a good example of Machiavellian ideas in practice in the modern world.
One of the central ideas that Machiavelli promotes is that the end justifies the means.
This means that the prince, or in this case the government of the United States, should do whatever it takes to facilitate the desired results. While Machiavelli would see immorality as a healthy part of government, the government of the United States would evidently disagree, as shown by the condemnation of Richard Nixon’s actions and his resignation from the presidency caused by the Watergate scandal in 1972. Machiavellian thinking would help explain why Nixon considered illegal wiretapping and other unlawful activities to be acceptable in order to help him obtain his goal of re-election.
Machiavelli’s fondness for dishonesty is also evident in his belief that a prince should say he will do one thing in order to make his people happy, and then do something entirely …show more content…
He maintains that in order to retain a strong relationship with his people, thriftiness and frugality are of utmost importance, and excess taxation should be avoided at all costs. Machiavelli states that a prince who is economical will eventually have enough money to spend defending his country and on other projects, and will not need to tax his people excessively. He would most likely argue that the current economic crisis in America was caused by money used irresponsibly, and that the United States government should have been more careful with its