MARIANNE GAIL Z.

CARIÑO AB POLITICAL SCIENCE 3A

|| CRITIQUE ON NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI’S THE PRINCE ||

It seems that our leaders today, such as Donald Trump and Rodrigo Duterte, are
living up to some of the Machiavellian principles presented in The Prince. Niccolo
Machiavelli offered his knowledge on the conduct of great men in his book which mainly
discussed what a prince should be and how he should handle the state. His ideas were
presented in a surprisingly simple tone, plain and direct style. The 26 chapters of The
Prince talks about the types of principalities or states, the types of armies and how the
prince should act as a military leader, the characteristics and behavior of the prince, and
Italy’s political situation of his time.

According to Machiavelli, a prince should rather be stingy than generous and

cruel than merciful, a breaker of promises when keeping it would be against one’s
interests, he should avoid being hated and despised, he should also undertake projects to
enhance his reputation, and must choose wise advisors but avoid flatterers. He also
discussed the relationship between Virtù, Fortuna, and Free Will wherein Fortuna is like
destiny which may be defeated by Virtù (the drive, talent, or ability directed toward the
achievement of certain goals). The prince should have Virtù as it is said to be the most
vital quality of a ruler/leader so that in the event that he is faced by a Fortuna when
running the state, he could meet it head on and bend it, if possible, to one's own will or
his will.

If asked whether I agree or not to Machiavelli’s points, I will have to disagree.

His points are often contradicting yet his ruthlessness and mercilessness is evident. He
even made his famous statement that “men should either be caressed or destroyed,”
meaning that if you must harm people, harm them so severely that they will not be able to
take revenge on you. The book also famously argues that the ends should justify the
means no matter how immoral it is. Machiavelli believed that leaders must “act against
mercy, against faith, against humanity, against frankness, against religion, in order to
preserve the state.”

Sounds familiar, right? Our very own president and USA presidential candidate is
somehow acting this way. Duterte is ordering us to kill suspected drug pushers to purge
the country of drugs, ignoring the fact that these suspected people have human rights, too.
Trump is also very arrogant when talking about how other races doesn’t belong to the US
and is asking his followers to help him in his campaign to make America great again.
These leaders are not my kind of leaders. I believe in leaders who can balance out
situations to give fair treatment to all. We are living in a different time after all. We could
live in peace and diversity without aggravating others.