machiavelli, Aristotle, August essays

machiavelli, Aristotle, August essays Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince examines the nature of power and his views of power in the leadership that he observed in his time. Machiavelli discusses power over the people, dictatorial power, and the power with the people. The struggle to retain, hold, and apply one power is human nature and this nature is agreeable with Aristotle's argument that "man is a political animal." In The Prince, Machiavelli discusses two distinct groups of people, the political elite, including nobles and the public. Machiavelli claims that ambition and dictatorial power drive most nobles and princes. Because shared power is only effective between the prince and his people and not between the prince and the nobles because the people depends on the prince and the prince needs his people but since nobles and the prince are driven by the same motivations shared power would be useless. "Whether men bear affection depends on themselves, but whether they are afraid will depend on what the ruler does" (p.60-61). While Machiavelli emphasizes power over in relations between the political elite, he discusses a different kind of power in the relationship between a prince and the public. Machiavelli notes that a prnice can share power with the people, since a prince can trust the people much more than he can trust the nobles. Nobles" can not be satisfied if a ruler acts honorable but the people can be thus satisfies, because their aims are more honorable than those of the nobles are for the latter only want to oppress and the former only wants to avoid being oppressed" (p. 35). The people are not unforgiving and greedy so the prince can place more trust in the people. Since the prince can trust the people the people will feel empowered and the people will in turn protect the prince rather than revolt against him, "when you arm them, these weapons become your own" (p 72). In this way the prince power is greater. The prince's pursuits for power the nat...