Nowadays politicians and statesmen have a certain stereotype around them. They are usually classified as being greedy, ruthless, vile, shady and shrewd but while we complain about these we never ask why most politicians are seen this way and why don't they try to change.
According to Renaissance Political Theorist, Niccolo Machiavelli politicians and statesmen have these traits not out of choice but out of necessity. A Politician has but three roles in his profession: to maintain the state, to enrich the state and to defend the state from internal and external threats. In order for a politician to be able to successfully perform these three roles Machiavelli says in his book The Prince they must know how to fight, how to read the environment and how to evaluate reputation. The Prince (the politician) should appear to the people not as a tyrant nor as a friend but instead should appear unapproachably strict but fair.
Kindness is a virtue for the citizen while effectiveness is the virtue that all leaders require which may call upon some dark arts. It is impossible to be a good politician and a good person.
Fear was another aspect Machiavelli said all leaders should be well aware of and use effectively. This was one of Machiavelli's biggest criticism as leaders were expected to be loved not feared or at least that is what the citizens were taught. Machiavelli replied by saying while it would be ideal for the prince to be loved and feared, they must always lean to inspire fear for this will result in order, unlike love as order is essential for maintaining the state.
Another quality all leaders should possess is virtu. Virtu is described as a mixture of: wisdom, strategy, strength, bravery and ruthlessness. Fortuna, Machiavelli said are the events and obstacles that the world will hurdle onto a leader and only with virtu can the leader use these events in his favor. Say for example if there is a tragedy in the state where many lives were lost a leader with virtu would unite the state in this time of darkness and prevent it from falling into anarchy.
Machiavelli's work was banned for many years by the Church because it went against their beliefs that since leader's powers came from god that leaders should be godly men. Machiavelli responded by saying that Christian ethics and good governance do not match with each other, being a good Christian is the same as being a weak leader and a weak leader shall being chaos to the state and eventually will be replaced usually by force.
All this being said Machiavelli did not endorse leaders to be tyrannical and disregard their subject's rights. Violence must only be necessary for the defense of the state, they must be done swiftly and in the dark and should not be repeated too often. Sometimes we must make ethical trade-offs for the good of the state and therefore for the good of ourselves.
Short video summary on what was discussed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOXl0Ll_t9s
No comments:
Post a Comment