The Prince 727He also developed a deep-rooted belief in the
inability of the common man to rise above his
immediate interests—his own safety and comfort.
He therefore advises the prince to discipline masses
into obedience through ruthless control. The larger
interest of the nation-state condoned resorting to
suppression and cruelty. A prince must project
himself as determined to achieve his objectives. A
compelling self alone can lead to public triumph.
Rule of law, authority, and discipline are indispens-
able to a ruler who would be feared and obeyed.
Machiavelli viewed history as a constantly mov-
ing cycle. If nations decayed and declined, the
princes had a patriotic obligation to be defiant, take
charge, and rejuvenate a sick society. He observed
the current realities of political life and concluded
that nothing short of extreme measures would suf-
fice for extreme situations. He firmly understood
that people do not live in utopias but in the harsh
realities of time and space. He abandoned the
inherited medieval thinking that glorified ideals and
values for their own sake, and sought a context for
people to live in the present and live in peace.
It is interesting to note that Machiavelli, in the
context of the politics of his day, did not see an
inescapable connection between moral goodness and
legitimate authority; but, contrary to popular belief,
he did not support political amorality for its own
sake. Machiavelli had a larger purpose before him.
Much ahead of his time as he was, he brought to
bear a sense of political realism and secular thinking
upon his mission.
Unlike the earlier medieval writers on statecraft,
Machiavelli maintained that common morality and
high ideals must be pursued only to attain precon-
ceived objectives. A nation survives and flourishes
through leadership, military power, and disciplined
masses. A prince must appear to be “compassionate,
faithful to his word, kind, guileless, and devout.”
But he must subject higher ideals to sordid political
realities and political strategy: “ . . . one who adapts
his policy to the times prospers, and likewise . . .
the one whose policy clashes with the demands of
the times does not,” Machiavelli maintained. Thus
Machiavelli abandons the medieval predilection for
political idealism and its emphasis on religion as
an integral part of political thinking. Machiavelli’s
views had a great influence on the early modern
debate surrounding “reasons of state”—the doctrine
that the good of the state itself takes precedence over
all other considerations.
Machiavelli has aroused much disagreement
over the justness of his remedies. He was a pas-
sionate patriot, a democrat, and a believer in liberty.
As a visionary, he argued for the emergence of the
modern, centralized, political state. What is beyond
doubt is his passionate desire to make it possible for
a nation to sustain itself politically for the welfare of
its citizens.
Gulshan TanejareSponSibility in The Prince
Machiavelli, in The Prince, is not detached or
cynical or irresponsible. In fact, he shows a great
sense of responsibility both as an author and as
an individual in his role in the larger socio-human
context in which he existed. He was a politically
concerned citizen with much experience in mat-
ters of statecraft. He believed that a citizen lived
within the compass of a family, community, and
state. He, therefore, had an obligation to help
sustain the structures that sustained him. He,
it could be argued, fulfilled his obligations as a
citizen. He reflected upon the state of affairs in
Florence and offered counsel, which, in his view,
it was the responsibility of every informed citizen
who benefited from organized social and political
institutions, to provide. Despite Machiavelli’s puta-
tive moral predilections, the essential import of his
counsel is positive: “Well organized states and wise
princes,” he maintains, “always take great pains not
to make the nobles despair, and to satisfy the people
and keep them content; this is one of the most
important tasks the prince must undertake.”
The question of responsibility presented itself
to Machiavelli as a complex issue. He felt that
it was the responsibility of a prince, by virtue of
being a prince, to secure, defend, and maintain the
state. Even though Machiavelli never says that a
prince’s actions are above ethical considerations,
he understands that being a prince requires that
the ruler fulfill his responsibility as a prince even at
the cost of subverting traditional values. A prince
is nothing if not responsible for the welfare of