Machiavelli, Part 2: Not so Black After All?


Machiavelli (“M”) wrote another book, The Discourses. In it, he describes three forms of government: monarchy, aristocracy (as in “meritocracy”) and democracy. He wrote all three can degenerate into bad forms of governance. Monarchy can easily become a tyranny. Aristocracies turn into cliquish oligarchies. And democracies can descend into chaotic mob rule.

So M’s preferred solution? A Republic. Not the way we see it now. Rather, he wanted it in the way ancient Rome was: a mix of monarchy, aristocracy and democracy. M was asking for a system with checks and balances in place! Wait, it gets better: M felt the job of a government is to provide stability, security and provide a setup where people can just get on with their lives. See how close this sounds to many modern governments?

See how contradictory this book is to the more (in)famous The Prince? Sebastian Major’s second podcast explores The Prince again with all of the above in mind. And then you see The Prince is about monarchies. M draws a difference between a newly formed monarchy and an “established” monarchy. In an established monarchy, a prince should follow the customs and practices in existence. Rule with a light touch, says M. All his controversial advice is for newly crowned rulers only, i.e., people in rare situations. After all, don’t we all know that a man who seeks to only be virtuous all the time is soon destroyed by all the evil around? But be too oppressive and wanton in cruelty, and you’ll have a revolt.

M repeatedly says that The Prince is not a book on how things should be, it is about how things are. M was a rude shock for the era (and those to come). They were used to political philosophers describing utopias and how ideal rulers should be e.g. the philosopher king of Plato. See the contrast?

Even the odd cruelty that M talks about is reserved for those who threaten the kingdom or the prince. This acts as a deterrent and limits the violence to a few individuals. The alternative, with a ruler who is too merciful, leads to rebellion and countless loss of innocent lives, argues M. The Prince says that the best princes are both feared and loved. Being one sided in either direction leads to chaos and instability. People should know what the boundaries are and fear crossing them. But they shouldn't fear that you'll go after them for no reason at all. (Did they base Tywin Lannister of Game of Thrones on this book?)

The podcast switches gears yet again to next explores the views of historians on M. How could a man who argues so eloquently in favor of a Republic in The Discourses be advocating advice on how to sustain a monarchy? Was M lieing in The Prince? Or was he just following his own advice of accepting the reality that the Medici were in power and auditioning for a job as a political advisor?

Another view is that The Prince was not written for Medici: after all, he'd have known all the dirty tricks to rule anyway! Instead, the book was written for the average Florentine to make them aware of how the Medici would operate.

A third, albeit far-fetched view is that The Prince was a trap. While appearing to help a monarch, it contained enough poison pills (deliberately bad advice) within it that, if followed, would lead to the downfall of the Medici… and restoration of M’s beloved Republic.

Or was M just a pragmatist who wanted stability above all else? A Republic ideally, but if it had to be a monarchy, then at least he wanted to mold it to be stable and not unnecessarily cruel.

There’s no clear answer, so feel free to pick your interpretation.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Student of the Year

Image
As a toddler, my daughter loved Alia Bhatt’s songs, esp. the ones from Student of the Year . (That movie did have many good songs and well-choreographed dances). Fast forward to present day, when she is 12 yo. She rarely watches Hindi movies now, but one of the few ones she likes of late, Raja aur Rani ki Prem Kahani has, yes, Alia Bhatt.   If I had any hopes that there was anything to be read in the name of her toddler-time favorite ( Student of the Year ), they have been dashed. Our conversations come exam time are perfectly captured by this photo and its caption: In fact, the pic below captures how she and I look at her answer sheets – me intently, she with an expression of “It’s over, so why are you even looking at it?”   Of late, we pull her leg and tell her that she isn’t showing any signs of academic prowess, she’d better find a rich guy to marry. Some time later, she showed us this meme on the Internet: “Me No Study, Me No Care Me Go Marry Millionaire If He Die
Read more

The Retort of the "Luxury Person"

Image
Coming up with biting and witty retorts. It’s something we dream of, but rarely manage to pull off. Worse, the more we stew over the offending remark, the more likely we are to come up with that dream retort, as Calvin ruefully points out: During our last holiday at the Taj Resort, seeing my wife carrying towels to our poolside chairs, one of the kids there mistook her for a member of the staff and asked for a towel. When my wife narrated this to us, I did not imagine that my 8 yo daughter would come up with her own retort. But a day later, my daughter recapped the incident, an incident that didn’t even involve her in the first place , and said, “You know what I’d have told that kid who asked for the towel?”. And without waiting for an answer, she told us anyway: “I don’t work here. I too am a luxury person who is living at this resort. Go get your own towel.” We were highly amused by the phrase she had coined: “luxury person”. It certainly captures the kind of holid
Read more

Animal Senses #7: Touch and Remote Touch

Instinctively, we think touch is based on contact. Not entirely true, explains Ed Yong in Immense World – there’s a more important aspect than contact: “These incredible feats are possible through movement. If you rest a fingertip upon a surface, you can get only a limited idea of its features. But as soon you’re allowed to move, everything changes. Hardness becomes apparent with a press. Textures resolve at a stroke.” As you run your fingers over a surface, they hit the tiny peaks and troughs and set off vibrations in the mechanoreceptors at their tips.   At the tip of its snout, the star-nosed mole has many pairs of hairless appendages. It uses them to touch things around itself. Alive or dead? Food or ignore? It does these movements at an insane speed. In the time it takes to blink our eyes, the star-nosed mole can probe, identify and swallow its food. “Light may be the fastest thing in the universe, but light sensors have their limits, and the star-nosed mole’s sense of
Read more