Editing Niccolò Machiavelli (section)

===''The Prince''===
{{Main|The Prince}}
[[File:Duke-Lorenzo.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Lorenzo II de' Medici|Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici]], to whom the final version of ''The Prince'' was dedicated]]

Machiavelli's best-known book ''Il Principe'' contains several maxims concerning politics. Instead of the more traditional target audience of a hereditary prince, it concentrates on the possibility of a "new prince". To retain royal authority, the hereditary prince does not have to do much to keep his position, as Machiavelli states that only an "excessive force" will deprive him of his rule.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zuckert |first=Catherine H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yZUtDwAAQBAJ&q=catherine+zuckert+machiavelli |title=Machiavelli's Politics |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0226434803}}</ref> By contrast, a new prince has the more difficult task in ruling: He must first stabilize his newfound power in order to build an enduring political structure. Machiavelli views that the virtues often recommended to princes actually hinder their ability to rule, thus a prince must learn to be able to act opposite said virtues in order to maintain his regime.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Machiavelli |first=Niccolo |title=The Prince |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1984 |isbn=0-19-281602-0 |location=Oxford, New York |pages=59–60}}</ref> A ruler must be concerned not only with reputation, but also must be positively willing to act unscrupulously at the right times. Machiavelli believed that, for a ruler, it was better to be widely feared than to be greatly loved; a loved ruler retains authority by obligation, while a feared leader rules by fear of punishment.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Machiavelli |first=Niccolò |title=The Prince |year=1532 |location=Italy |pages=120–121}}</ref> As a political theorist, Machiavelli emphasized the "necessity" for the methodical exercise of brute force or deceit, including extermination of entire noble families, to head off any chance of a challenge to the prince's authority.<ref>Machiavelli, ''The Prince'', Chapter III</ref>

Scholars often note that Machiavelli glorifies instrumentality in state building, an approach embodied by the saying, often erroneously attributed to Machiavelli, "[[The ends justify the means]]".<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q4EULB2IM50C&q=harvey%20mansfield%20machiavelli&pg=PA27 | title=Machiavelli's Virtue | isbn=978-0-226-50372-1 | last1=Mansfield | first1=Harvey C. | date=25 February 1998 | publisher=University of Chicago Press }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZqroV-TkIhgC&q=erroneously&pg=PR43 | title=Machiavelli's Liberal Republican Legacy | isbn=978-1-139-44833-8 | last1=Rahe | first1=Paul A. | date=14 November 2005 | publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref> Fraud and deceit are held by Machiavelli as necessary for a prince to use.<ref>''The Prince'', Chapter XVIII, "In What Mode Should Faith Be Kept By Princes"</ref> Violence may be necessary for the successful stabilization of power and introduction of new political institutions. Force may be used to eliminate political rivals, destroy resistant populations, and purge the community of other men strong enough of a character to rule, who will inevitably attempt to replace the ruler.<ref>''The Prince''. especially Chapters 3, 5 and 8</ref> In one passage, Machiavelli subverts the advice given by [[Cicero]] to avoid duplicity and violence, by saying that the prince should "be the fox to avoid the snares, and a lion to overwhelm the wolves". It would become one of Machiavelli's most famous maxims.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2kiYz6d278IC&q=machiavelli+skinner|title=Machiavelli: A Very Short Introduction|last=Skinner|first=Quentin|date=2000-10-12|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=9780191540349|language=en}}</ref> Machiavelli's view that acquiring a state and maintaining it requires [[evil]] means has been noted as the chief theme of the treatise.<ref>{{Harvtxt|Strauss|1958|pp=12}}</ref> Machiavelli has become infamous for such political advice, ensuring that he would be remembered in history through the adjective "Machiavellian".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kanzler |first=Peter |title=The Prince (1532), The Leviathan (1651), The Two Treatises of Government (1689), The Constitution of Pennsylvania (1776) |publisher=Peter Kanzler |year=2020 |isbn=978-1716844508 |page=22}}</ref>

Due to the treatise's controversial analysis on politics, in 1559, the [[Catholic Church]] banned ''The Prince'', putting it on the ''{{lang|la|[[Index Librorum Prohibitorum]]}}''.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_yPeCwAAQBAJ&dq=index+librorum+prohibitorum+1559+machiavelli&pg=PA16 | title=The Routledge Guidebook to Machiavelli's the Prince | isbn=978-1-317-53673-4 | last1=Scott | first1=John T. | date=31 March 2016 | publisher=Routledge }}</ref><ref>Landon, W. J. (2005). Politics, Patriotism and Language: Niccolò Machiavelli's" secular Patria" and the Creation of an Italian National Identity (Vol. 57). Peter Lang.</ref> [[Humanists]], including [[Erasmus]] ({{circa|1466}}{{snd}}1536), also viewed the book negatively. As a treatise, its primary intellectual contribution to the history of political thought is the fundamental break between political [[Realism (international relations)|realism]] and political [[Idealism in international relations|idealism]], due to it being a manual on acquiring and keeping political power.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://doi.org/10.2307/2600844 | doi=10.2307/2600844 | jstor=2600844 | title=International Realism and the Science of Politics: Thucydides, Machiavelli, and Neorealism | last1=Forde | first1=Steven | journal=International Studies Quarterly | date=1995 | volume=39 | issue=2 | pages=141–160 }}</ref> In contrast with [[Plato]] and [[Aristotle]], Machiavelli insisted that an imaginary ideal society is not a model by which a prince should orient himself.

Concerning the differences and similarities in Machiavelli's advice to ruthless and tyrannical princes in ''The Prince'' and his more republican exhortations in ''Discourses on Livy'', a few commentators assert that ''The Prince'', although written as advice for a monarchical prince, contains arguments for the superiority of republican regimes, similar to those found in the ''Discourses''. In the 18th century, the work was even called a [[satire]], for example by [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] (1712–1778).<ref>''Discourse on Political Economy'': opening pages.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Berlin |first=Isaiah |title=The Originality of Machiavelli |url=http://berlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk/published_works/ac/machiavelli.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121202125009/http://berlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk/published_works/ac/machiavelli.pdf |archive-date=2 December 2012 |access-date=18 October 2012}}</ref> This however is an interpretation that is often refuted by scholars.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ieyoDwAAQBAJ&dq=satire%20.%20Machiavelli%27s%20letters%20mention%20The%20Prince%20with%20only%20the%20highest%20serious-%20ness%20.%20Certainly%20none%20of%20Machiavelli%27s%20contemporaries%20thought%20The%20Prince%20was%20a%20humorous%20work%20.%20In%20a%20lengthy%20book%20Machiavelli%20wrote%20on%20republics%20%2C%20the%20...&pg=PT29 | title=The Prince: With Related Documents | isbn=978-1-319-32840-5 | last1=Connell | first1=William J. | last2=Machiavelli | first2=Niccolo | date=5 August 2019 | publisher=Macmillan Higher Education }}</ref>

Scholars such as [[Leo Strauss]] (1899–1973) and [[Harvey Mansfield]] ({{b.|1932}}) have stated that sections of ''The Prince'' and his other works have deliberately esoteric statements throughout them.<ref>This point made most notably by {{Harvtxt|Strauss|1958}}.</ref> However, Mansfield states that this is the result of Machiavelli's seeing grave and serious things as humorous because they are "manipulable by men", and sees them as grave because they "answer human necessities".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mansfield |first=Harvey C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q4EULB2IM50C&q=machiavelli%27s+virtue |title=Machiavelli's Virtue |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0226503721 |pages=228–229}}</ref>

The Marxist theorist [[Antonio Gramsci]] (1891–1937) argued that Machiavelli's audience was the common people, as opposed to the ruling class, who were already made aware of the methods described through their education.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Thomas |first=Peter D. |year=2017 |title=The Modern Prince |journal=History of Political Thought |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=523–544 |jstor=26210463}}</ref>