Machiavelli Quiz

"The Prince is a concise statement of Machiavelli's belief that classical and Christian political theory is unworkable in a world that defines politics as the exercise of power and the struggle for power. It is also implicitly a rejection of a nihilistic counterethic, that only power and brute force matter."

Discuss to what extent you agree or disagree with this statement. What evidence can you bring to support your position?
(Dante Germino, Machiavelli to Marx: Modern Western Political Thought, p. 32)



Machiavelli did not believe that, if politics is the exercise of power and the struggle for power, Christian political theory is workable. Within Christianity, there are certain absolute moral laws and standards which have been set not by the world, but by God. These standards do not include using harsh or nefarious acts by the prince in power. Moreover, Machiavelli makes it specifically clear that there is no room for a ruler to follow morals or conscience. He must do everything or anything it takes to remain in power because people themselves are evil. If this ruler were to establish morals, they would be only those which would, in the end, serve as beneficial to the prince and his efforts to maintain power. Machiavelli concludes that the prince needs only to be as good as circumstances allow, allowing for the use of evil in extreme situations.

While I agree with Germino's first statement, I disagree with his second. Machiavelli makes it very clear that brute force and power take priority over love and relationships in princedoms. In chapter seventeen, Machiavelli addresses these things. He says that it is ideal to be both loved and feared as a ruler. However, if both cannot be accomplished at once, which is very seldom, then to be feared is more important when power is at stake. Thus, he believes in the importance of love and relationships but only after fear which often requires brute force and power.