Nachiavelli's Bictionaiy

C
Chaiactei Tiaits (of a iulei)
1. What are the character traits a ruler should appear to have, and what are the
traits s/he should actually have?
A ruler should appear to have the qualities that earn men praise, these include courage,
compassion, faith, and generosity. However, the priority of a ruler should be to protect the
state, which may require him to possess qualities considered bad, such as cruelty,
stubbornness, and miserliness

! Have mostly good qualities but enough vices to allow you to stay in power.
! Generosity
o Acting in this way will do damage.
o He will waste all his resources and end up taxing his subjects to repay.
o Be a miser.
o Squander and spend generously other peoples money
! Cruelty
o Better than being too compassionate and letting your republic crumble.
o Harsh necessity2. How should a ruler handle his or her personal finances, and
those of the state?

He shouldnt care if people call him a miser rather than generous. If he is careful with his
money, then he will not have to tax away all of his citizens wealth and will always have
enough to protect them in wartime. He wont always have to be concerned with the
maximization of wealth. Generosity leads to being both hated and despised because
there is nothing as self-defeating as generosity, because the more generous you are, the
less you are able to be generous. 50

3. Under what conditions should a ruler lie or be truthful, cruel or merciful? When
should a ruler try to unify or divide his or her subjects? What sorts of general
conclusions might we draw from this advice?

So you must be a fox when it comes to suspecting a trap, and a lion when it comes to
making the wolves turn tail 54
A wise ruler should not keep his word when it is not to his advantage to do so or when
the context the promise was made in is no longer applicable. be a clever counterfeit and
hypocrite

! Should a ruler keep his word?
o Should not keep his word when this leads to his disadvantage.
o Appear true to convince others on your word
o Do what is right if he can, but be willing to do what is wrong if necessary.
o Seem pious, reliable, truthful, sympathetic, and religious.
! Avoiding hatred and contempt
o Do not mess with property or women
o Do not appear erratic, capricious, effeminate, pusillanimous, irresolute
o Be determined in decisions.
o Appoint positions to take the blame for unfavorable acts while taking all credit for
favorable ones.
o Keep opposing groups in check by seeming powerful
Fear the populace more than soldiers and aim to please them over soldiers.

When to unify/divide subjects?? I think you should always unify your subjects (according
to Machiavelli) because if they are divided then it causes problems if you have to go to
war

o But not too excessive
o Be loved and feared, but safer to be feared.
o Provide for citizens but never need them, for then they will turn on you.
Never take anothers property or women.
Class Conflict
2. How does the institutionalization of class conflict encourage public
commitment?
Proper institutionalization, which makes sacrifice of private interest for the public good,
can lead to the public good being the standard for merit. In a polity such as this public
commitment then is going to be of the highest importance and the citizens become more
virtuous.
Those who are in power are ambitious; those who are ruled only want freedom from
oppression. This works as a system of checks and balances. Those in power want to
please those who are ruled (i.e. they are committed to the public good so that they can
stay in power)

3. What are some of the most significant, productive ways of institutionalizing
social conflict?
Dividing power in government between the three types of regimes, which usually are
comprised of different classes.( Autocratic, Aristocratic, Democratic ).
Creating a culture of public scrutiny of individuals. If the opinion of everyone else matters
citizens will be more virtuous and try to help the public good whenever possible.
The establishment of a legal system that enforces citizens to do their duties, and a court
system that can enforce responsibility so that everyone does as much as they can for the
polity.

B
Bistoiical Ciicumstance (Foi moie, see !"#$%&%$#'#()")
1. What are the critical issues raised by the historical circumstances in
which Machiavelli is writing?
The Prince is about how a newly appointed prince should rule. However, the
Medici were only newly restored to power and their problems were not the same
as those addressed by Machiavelli.
The advice he gives is general because that is what the Medici wanted and in
hopes of gaining employment, that is what Machiavelli produced.
Very few references to Florence or Florence government/politics. Does not
advocate princely rule in Florence, proven by the fact he never discusses this.
People believe that Machiavelli was advising the Medici to focus on other
territories instead of Florence.

! Standard view: A handbook for autocrats to teach evil
! Republican Interpretations (considering Machiavellis republican sympathies)
o Weak
Prince as an alternative to chaos
o Strong
Prince as a founder of republic
Difficult to see how his advice would result in the
foundation of a free polity.
Text as handbook for republicans
Rousseau argues this. Machiavelli wrote this as the
reality for how republicans are. The republicans did not want others to know that
they were evil so they banned the book.
o Trapping
Self-subversion of the Prince
Within Machiavellis advice is another set of goals.
If a prince follows especially important points of advice,
he lead to his own down-fall.
A deceitful book.

I
Inteipieting Nachiavelli
2. How are Machiavelli's personal experiences potentially relevant to our
interpretation of his work?
The Medici family threw him out. Dedicating the Prince to them could have been a
political move to get on their good side. This could also serve as evidence for the
Trapping interpretation because if Machiavelli really didnt like them this book could have
served to destroy them with bad advice. So his attitude towards the Medici is very
important. Furthermore as a dedicated republican, we can assume that this work- like his
others (the discourse, for example)- is highly relevant to modern republicans. If so, then
we can assume a republican interpretation.

Machiavelli was suspected of conspiring against the government of Florence and put into
prison and soon thereafter tortured by strappado. He survived, was not executed, but not
pronounced innocent. After serving confinement, he retreated to farmland where he did
not partake in Christianity and made political discoveries.
He compared his city to ancient Rome and Greece.
His father was of a low social class, so Machiavelli had no voting or political rights. He
was compared to the technician of politics and gained his insight through travel.
His work is a result of his personal experiences with meetings.
Machiavelli saw the murder and destruction of the people as unforgivable.
Discusses republics from his experience of his strappado torture.
His book Life is written as a history. When trying to seek employment, he knew that they
needed someone to write a history of Florence. To show he could write a history, he
wrote Life. Does not accurately reflect him- more of a satire in Machiavellism in its most
extreme form. He got the job.
3. What are the different interpretations that have been offered to make sense of
the relationship between Machiavelli's republican commitments and his advice to
autocrats?
The weak republican interpretation relates the two by assuming a worst case scenario in
which Machiavelli was more concerned with corruption and anarchy than autocratic rule.
Therefore the Prince helps restore peace by telling autocrats how to rule. In addition, the
Trapping interpretation assumes this advice is bad. Therefore Machiavelli is showing his
republicanism by laying a trap for autocrats wherein they will find utter destruction should
they follow his advice. The other interpretations only focus on one of these or the other.

Dionisotti points out that many contemporaries saw Machiavelli as Soderinis personal
agent and planned to use the militia in a coup dtat.
Others argue that Machiavelli is a servant of the republic. But Machiavelli was known for
not keeping the government officials informed of what he was up to.

Wanted to gain employment from the Medici.
Wanted to give bad advice to lead to the ruin on the Medici.
Neither of these is correct

Bad advice, satire, or intentionally ambiguous

In the Discourses, Machiavelli argues for the lover of liberty and The Prince is a manual
tyranny. Not true both were written at the same time so this would not make sense. He
references the other works.

4. What kind of evidence might be relevant to assessing the viability of these
different interpretations?
Machiavellis tones and ideas in his other works suggest a Republican interpretation. At
the same time, should evidence surface that the advice he gives actually works then the
Trappings interpretation is not valid. Furthermore the ideas he had at the time of the
Prince, his allies, and whether or not the basic ideas of the Prince were spread out
among followers or friend before given to the Medici would be very helpful in determining
his cause for publication.



L
Libeity
+ !"#$%&'"(')*:
4. The gist of Machiavelli's reflections is that liberty is difficult to acquire,
and difficult to maintain. How would you describe the challenges facing
those who would seek to establish or restore liberty in a polity?
if a populace that had been living under an autocratic regime gains its freedom, it
has a very poor chance of preserving that freedom because the people are so
accustomed to being told what to do that they dont have any skills necessary to
make their own decisions (autocracies produce stupid subjects)
a. Cities that were free at founding and have governed themselves
from the beginning, find it very difficult to protect their freedom.
b. Cities that were NOT free and NOT governed from within find it IMPOSSIBLE
to establish or preserve liberty.
i. Laws before and after are mixed
c.How the populace seeks its own ruin
i. Misunderstand a plan as attractive when it really is ruinous.
ii. Better to propose a plan that seems to result in gain or courage.
+ ,$')#$')')*:
1. How do the historical experiences of a community affect the possibilities
of realizing and maintaining liberty?
Essentially unfree regimes (limited number of people ruling) have less liberty for
citizens, but if corrupt they are easy to reform. Conversely, free regimes
(democracies, republics) have high levels of freedom for citizens but if corrupt
are almost impossible to ever reform.

a. Being used to living under the command of one or few and suddenly being free
from this rule results in the people having no experience in debate or politics.
Eventually they will turn to the command of an individual, which results in harsher
and more corrupt tyranny than before.
b. The state that became free acquires enemies, and few allies. No one feels
obliged to anyone else for their freedom.
Solution:
i. Kill sons of Brutus, those that are hostile to the constitution.
ii. Gain support of populace by revenging themselves and restoring
freedom.
iii. How to restore freedom:
1. Find a small number of people to occupy government positions. Small number
is easier to neutralize by killing them or offering them attractive positions.
2. Organize laws and institutions and show the populace that everyone follows
them including the leader.
c. Maintaining freedom is difficult for corrupt people who become free
i. Cutting off the head before the body gets infected
makes reform more likely.
d. Preserving freedom in a corrupt but free city
i. Difficult
ii. No laws or institutions that will restrain a corrupt city
iii. New political institutions are the only remedy. More monarchical
than democratic.
e. Ingratitude
i. Human nature to be suspicious of others.
ii. Goals of a republic:
1. To expand territory
2. To preserve freedom
a. Mistakes made: To be suspicious of and attack those who deserve
reward.
b. Result:
i. Republic ends under tyranny
ii. Republic lasts but people obey in fear of punishment
f. Dictatorships
i. Power acquired through unconstitutional means, without the consent of
citizens is harmful to the republic.
ii. Limited powers, people are not corrupt, and impossible to
exceed powers to harm the city make a good dictator.
iii. Dictatorships within republics makes for hastier decision
making
+ -./%&01" 2'#( &$2"3')$4056$78
3. Why are institutions and laws insufficient guarantees of liberty, and why
are they inadequate in conditions of corruption?
People that are corrupt will not follow good laws; good habits = good laws,
if there is not a well ordered republic in place, people who have frustrated
ambitions will turn to other methods that try to undermine the current existing
authority and other fraudulent behaviors;
a. Laws will not aid where the populace is corrupt.
Instead, establish a monarchy whose king can use his unlimited and absolute
power to restrain them.
Where [individuals] are corrupt, the best-planned laws are useless, unless the
laws are imposed by someone who uses ruthless methods to make people obey
him, until individuals become good themselves. I do not know if this has ever
happened, or if it could ever happen.-Machiavelli

P
Political Communities:
- 1. Why is history important for thinking about the challenges of creating and
maintaining political communities?
Machiavelli thinks that weve seen which cities have had success and which cities have
had failure with their political systems, so we should be able to incorporate some of the
aspects of these governments into our own. He also looks back at what he describes as
a cyclical process of pure constitutions and their evil counterpartsthat is, monarchy
and tyranny; aristocracy and oligarchy; and democracy and anarchy.
Piince:
1. The Prince is usually called a handbook for autocrats. How can we square
Machiavellis republican commitments with his attempt to advise princes on how
they should rule?
See question 3 under Inerpretations
2. Machiavelli argues that a new Prince must pay close attention to a number of
issues regarding the acquisition of power over a new principality. What are the
most important considerations about the challenges of acquiring power that a new
prince should be thinking about?
The best way to answer this question and question 3 is together. So when coming to
power and when ruling over a newly conquered polity a Prince must consider what type
of polity he conquered in order to know how to handle it. Inclusive regimes are much
harder to conquer, but easier to rule and inclusive regimes with devolved power are just
the opposite. Republics are both hard to conquer and hard to control. In addition, the
Prince must consider his mode of acquisition: force, fortune, fraud, election. As each of
these reveals his character to the people of the polity and his time spent ruling will be
dependent upon that.
4. What are the achievements by which a Prince (or any ruler) will be judged to be a
successful ruler?
Essentially just coming to power and maintaining it. Though if he can do this without
corrupting the polity then bonus points.





R
Regime
+ Failuie & Success
- 1. What are the main determinants of regime success and failure?
How a regime is organized and who will determine its laws are the standards by
which Machiavelli measures success and failure. He thinks that ideally, cities will
be built up in nice areas with laws that make sure people do not get too lazy living
off of the fruitful land. He thinks that a successful regime is less dynamic than a
failure---that is, it may go through changes, but they are gradual, generation to
generation, and dont happen when someone seizes power.
Also how a regime is set up determines how its citizens behave. Machiavelli cites
republics as not only being the most successful regime types, but they also
produce the most virtuous citizens, which could be considered a success of the
regime.
- 2. 3. How is regime failure reflected in changes of regime types?
Monarchy and tyranny; aristocracy and oligarchy; and democracy and anarchy.
Regime failure is reflected in change of regime type because it means that the
good type of constitution has become the evil kind, and people want to move
onto the next type of government to see if it will work better. Basically after
generations of sons taking over for their fathers people lose sight of what was
originally important to them. Thus the war a monarch had to fight might not mean
anything to his son or grandson and the freedom and liberty fought for is taken for
granted, yielding apathy and less sympathetic will towards the people of the polity.
+ Type (foi moie, see Libeity)
4. What is the ideal regime type for restraining the forces of regime failure
and encouraging the chances of regime success?
You need a mix of constitution types. In Rome, [type of] Power was added to
power [instead of being lost each time the regime type changed], and the mixture
that resulted made for a perfect republic. Page 91: I have concluded that all these
forms of government are pestilential ["] Those who know how to construct
constitutions wisely have identified this problem and have avoided each one of
these types of constitution in its pure form, constructing a constitution with
elements of each. A republic.
Republic (life)
4. How would you characterize everyday life in a vibrant republic?
Life in a vibrant republic revolves around the citizens. The class conflict will manifest itself
in the form of everyone trying to better themselves and their polity. Government will be
pure and the people without corruption. There is also very little time for personal
pleasure, as everything it directed toward the public good.



S
Social Inequality
2. What is the relationship of social inequality and corruption, and why does social
inequality make liberty more tenuous?
Machiavelli believes that societies cause corruption. A society suddenly given freedom,
inexperienced at its new liberty will inevitably be recaptured. For a people who have
been entirely corrupted cannot live free for even a short period of time, not even for a
moment, (121).

large amounts of social inequality make liberty more tenuous because people are
jealous. This can lead to corruption as people try to increase their place in society
illegitimately. Small social inequalities allow an outlet for ambition (<-- i'm not positive that
is from Machiavelli)
Can someone clear this one up? Its from Machiavelli

W
Wai
4. How should a ruler handle the challenges of war and international relations if he
or she is going to be successful?
! Mercenary and auxiliary troops are useless.
o Mercenary Troops cannot trust, self motivated, no allegiance to you, build up their
own forces against you
o Auxiliary Troops troop of another country who assist you in battle.
If they lose, you lose more. If they win, you become their prisoner.
! Use own troops
! Military power is IMPORTANT to power.
o Helps maintain power and gain power being a great soldier.
! Keep troops standing even in time of peace.
! Ruler should become acquainted with the land.
! International Relations
o In a war among neighbors, it is best to take a side and fight.
Otherwise the victor will prey on you and you have no allies.
o A ruler should never side with someone more powerful than himself, for if you win you
are allys prisoner.
-They should get to know the land really well and also be thinking of war and war
preparations at all times.
-They should never stay neutral, because if they do, they will be hated by those they
could have allied with and attacked by the victors. If they fight with someone and lose,
they will help each other in the future; if they fight and win, they will share in the spoils
-They should be known as cruel to their soldiers so they stay in line.
! Mercenary and auxiliary troops are useless.
o Mercenary Troops cannot trust, self motivated, no allegiance to you, build up their
own forces against you
o Auxiliary Troops troop of another country who assist you in battle.
If they lose, you lose more. If they win, you become their prisoner.
! Use own troops
! Military power is IMPORTANT to power.
o Helps maintain power and gain power being a great soldier.
! Keep troops standing even in time of peace.
! Ruler should become acquainted with the land.
! International Relations
o In a war among neighbors, it is best to take a side and fight.
Otherwise the victor will prey on you and you have no allies.
A ruler should never side with someone more powerful than himself, for if you win you are
allys prisoner.