Democracy and Machiavelli
By: Monika • Essay • 365 Words • December 23, 2009 • 1,259 Views
Essay title: Democracy and Machiavelli
In Machiavelli's The Prince, hints of future democratic theories can be pulled out of Machiavelli's plan for the success of a prince of a state. Within Machiavelli's concentration of plotting out successful achievement of a stabilized state within a principality, he often reveals the importance of the satisfaction the people within the governing walls of that principality. One of the themes to Machiavelli's plan included the dismissal of the affection of virtue of the nobility as well as the significance of an honest people. Even though Machiavelli may have had other motivation for the writing of "The Prince",
Machiavelli states that a prince would be praiseworthy by many if he could achieve the fifteen virtues and vices that Machiavelli lists off in chapter fifteen. After, however, he writes, "But because he cannot have them, nor wholly, observe them, since human, conditions do not permit it, it is necessary for him to be so prudent as to know how to avoid the infamy of those vices that would take his state from and to be on guard against those that do not, if that is possible; but if one cannot, one can let them go on with less hesitation."( pg. 62, lines 9-15) Machiavelli writes that it is important for a prince to recognize virtu and act