The Princes are Still Here

Machiavelli is the author of a very interesting piece of work. Written as a straightforward guide to a prince, The Qualities of the Prince is easy to read and understand. What is interesting is that different people find different meanings in his work. In class we discussed two possibilities: either Machiavelli is truly writing a guide for a prince, probably the Medici prince, or he was writing an angry satire about the world after being thrown in prison. Either way, his book was influential and accurate for the situation of a leader in his day.
After hearing the criticism of Machiavelli’s works in class and then in the blog, I wanted to respond with the idea that this royalty does exist today and that this shady behavior happens all the time. Of course, this discussion depends on how one interprets the modern political situation.

Machiavelli’s time was ruled by many princes who had armies and subjects. Now, there are few princes today and none in America, but I am not making a literal comparison. America is run by the president and congress from the most part, and I will concentrate on these two rulers. Even though the presidency is technically a higher position than a member of congress I will think of them all as hundreds of princes. These princes either have control of the military or have some influence in foreign policy; they also are elected by a group of people, congress members are representative of a small area full of subjects and the president is representative of usually half the United States as well as a certain political party. So, in a metaphorical sense, princes still exist in some way today.

I believe it is also true that these princes still use the same techniques observed by Machiavelli. Leaders today are obsessed with war. The world is constantly in some kind of battle; governments continually fund military, weapons and defense, development; Leaders are always looking for opportunities to gain powerful allies through treaties. War is also still the key thought of a leader because some leaders must fight for their position and must kill off their opposition and some leaders must win an election and must present their opponents as less worthy for the position. One may say that politics is war and that politicians are obsessed with it. Politicians must keep up their appearances, practice their speeches and poise, and find incriminating facts about their rivals.

One other thought, how often to politicians appear to be trustworthy and generous when running for office and then never take a stand on certain issues or pass burdensome tax laws on the people. What is most important is for a person to seem like the perfect candidate because it is difficult to take someone out of office simply because the public is unhappy with how he has kept his promises.