"The Prince", Machiavel - How to purchase and keep a state

Résumé du document

The Prince, is a sulphurous work published in 1513. It is condemned by every authors except Jean-Jacques Rousseau who is defended it modestly. This text is deeply rooted in political crises which take place in Firenze at the turn of the XVe and XVIe century. As a result the redaction of the treaty is justified in a way, by the wish of Machiavel to be employed by the Medicis family and to take back a function in the public affairs.

But it would be widely reducing to make of the Prince a simple work of flattery. It is also to underline another issue. Politics is thought in time of crisis. The analyses of the Prince are focused on the problem of government and the hereditary of government.

Extraits

[...] The principles spread by the scholastic thought, as the law, the right, the justice or the morality, are subordinated to him. When a danger threatens the authority of the prince, the "necessity" requires that this one suspends for a moment the law, it is essential for him. Machiavel says " if he wants to remain he has to learn he can be good and use or not use it when it is necessary " (chapter XVIII). Machiavel reminds that situations of danger authorize the prince to enter in the evil "if it need that's mean commit offences and crimes. [...]

[...] "The Prince", Machiavel The Prince, is a sulphurous work published in 1513. It is condemned by every authors except Jean-Jacques Rousseau who is defended it modestly. This text is deeply rooted in political crises which take place in Firenze at the turn of the XVe and XVIe century. As a result the redaction of the treaty is justified in a way, by the wish of Machiavel to be employed by the Medicis family and to take back a function in the public affairs. [...]

[...] As a conclusion we can say that the Prince have to be a perfect simulator and dissembling. As a matter of fact it isn't necessary that the Prince possesses a lot of virtues, what is needed it is that it appears to have them. Much better if he had them they would carry him damages because to reign it is often necessary to act against faith, against the charity, against the humanity or against the religion. Machiavel says he can stays in the good if the thing is possible; he have to choose for the evil, if it is necessary People judge mostly according to their eyes that according to their hands. [...]

[...] In other words, the Policy of Machiavel advocates the permanent reasons of state. In this respect Machiavel specifies both domains in which the necessity has to take over. In a first time, it is imperative in the relations between States, because they only know strength between them. So it is the reasons of state which in Machiavel's thought manages completely the art of war and the diplomacy. As he said : " The war is just for those who think it is necessary " (chapter XXVI). [...]

[...] Once settled at the head of the State the Prince have to use of stratagems to keep it. He doesn't have to ruin the less powerful, increase the power of the powerful, put a powerful foreigner at the head of a part of the State. On the other hand he has to live on his territory to be closed from problems and that way look after the evil to its sources before it spreads. He also has to install settlements which can only be profitable to him. [...]