Advances in Politics and Economics

ISSN 2576-1382 (Print) ISSN 2576-1390 (Online)

Vol. 5, No. 1, 2022
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Original Paper

Machiavelli’s Political Thought and Its Inspiration—Text

Analysis Based on the Prince

Zhang Haokai1
1
Xinjiang University, Urumqi, Xinjiang, 830046, China

Received: December 15, 2021 Accepted: December 31, 2021 Online Published: January 7, 2022
doi:10.22158/ape.v5n1p33 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/ape.v5n1p33

Abstract
Machiavelli is one of the founders of modern bourgeois political theory. The birth of his masterpiece
The Prince creates a new pattern of western political thought, which marks the first time that political
science has escaped from the bondage of religion and ethics. At the same time, Machiavelli is also
named “Machiavelliism”. The so-called “no means to achieve the purpose” has become the greatest
misunderstanding of Machiavelli. Based on the prince analysis of Machiavelli’s political thought,
around his national unity of Italy launched the national regime, military, monarchy and other aspects
of thinking.
Keywords
Machiavelli, Machiavellianism, national regime, military, power

1. Introduction
Voltaire called Machiavelli a “evil gangster”, Hume thought he was a “great genius”, Engels called him
a “giant”, Marx affirmed that he opposed fatalism to emphasize the role of people, called him the
pioneer of modern politics. Isaiah Berlin pointed out that “Machiavelli was first an Italian and patriot.
He was first speaking to his generation, even if he was not only to the Florentines, but also to the
Italians. Therefore, to criticize him, he must be based only on or at least on his historical background.”
In the book The prince, Machiavelli elaborates on how to establish a monarchy, how to maintain the
monarchy, how to deal with the relationship between the monarch and his subjects, and the monarch’s
virtue. Machiavelli believed that the real good monarch must be a fox to find traps, and must be a lion
to scare away the jackals. Only the combination of cunning and fierceness can create a generation of
bright monarchs. The prince has been enduring for thousands of years, it is because of his utilitarian
value doctrine, power thought and other political thoughts can be used today.
The 14th and 16th centuries coincided with the Western Renaissance and religious reform, and

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Florence was the centre of the Renaissance in Italy and even throughout Western Europe. The
Renaissance restored the dignity of human beings by exploring and reviving the ancient Greek and
Roman culture, criticizing the dark religious rule by ancient metaphor and quoting classics, and
praising humanity against divinity and anti-asceticism for the pursuit of happiness in the present world.
In the dark Middle Ages of Europe, the Christian church monopolized people’s minds ideologically,
and the churches at all levels occupied a large amount of land economically. The political power of the
church was once higher than that of the monarchy, and “Ceasare” crawled under God’s feet. In addition,
the life of the clergy class was extremely decadent. In his Decameron during the Renaissance
Boccaccio revealed the shamelessness of feudal aristocrats and Christians. However, in the middle of
the 15th century, pope despotism accelerated its revival after more than a century of attack and
weakening. At the same time, the monarchy was also strengthened in various regions of Western
Europe.
Contrary to the high prosperity in culture, Italy is in a state of separation and fragmentation in politics.
Since the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the establishment of the Italian Kingdom in 1861 and the
final unification in 1871, the Apennine Peninsula has experienced more than one thousand years of
political division, which consists of five kingdoms, the Principality, the Republic, the Pope and
territories: the Venice Aristocratic Republic in the northeast, the Duchy of Milan in the northwest, the
Naples Republic in the south, and the Republic of Florence and the Pope in the middle. The Roman
Holy See took advantage of Italy’s fragmented situation to suppress the monarchy and strengthen the
Pope’s authority, making the Pope’s jurisdiction the most consolidated and lasting regime in Italy,
where powerful countries such as France and Spain outside the country were on fire and Italy was in
deep heat. Political reality reflects the corruption of Italy’s institutional level. Political corruption,
moral decay and cruel measures have become the means of governance. Honesty and credibility are
regarded as naive. Arms are used as a recipe for success. It is common to spend pride and extravagance
and seek personal interests. Individuals are only for themselves, except for the interests of egoism.
Italy’s problem lies in the corrupt and divided society. Machiavelli firmly believes that no governance
is possible except for monarchy, which explains why he is enthusiastic about worshiping the ancient
Roman Republic and actively promoting authoritarianism.
Economic changes have had far-reaching political and social consequences. After the geographical
discovery, the World Trade Center has been transferred from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic coast.
Any degree of improvement in the convenience of transportation is incompatible with local monopoly
and trade control. “Merchant adventurers” have obtained the maximum profit, Italy has further missed
the opportunity for the development of capitalism, and adjacent France has achieved amazing results
due to monarchy. The Italian monarchs seek to unify the peninsula and realize the glory of “Ceasare”.
However, the political power of the bourgeoisie is difficult to fight with the feudal aristocrats and
churches. They will hope to be placed on the powerful new monarchs. The bourgeoisie is willing to see
the strengthening of the monarch’s power. They hope that the monarch conforms to the capitalist tide of
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Western Europe, breaks the restrictions and shackles since the Middle Ages, eliminates the customs and
heavy taxes caused by political division, and establishes a unified domestic market. Therefore, the
emerging middle class has become an important force in the monarchy. Common interests make the
two opposing classes reach a common front of anti-religion and unity. George Holland Sabine pointed
out, therefore, by the beginning of the 16th century, the monarchy had become or would soon become a
universal regime in Western Europe. The above is the political, economic and cultural background of
Machiavelli’s creation of The prince.

2. Analysis of Machiavelli and The Prince

2.1 Machiavelli
Machiavelli was born in Florence on May 3, 1469, and died here on June 22, 1527. He spent his life in
Florence except for several diplomatic missions to Italy and France and Germany. From 1494 to 1512,
he served as Secretary-General of the Second Secretary-General’s Office in the Republic of Florence.
His visit to the Republic of Florence was contemptuous, which made him deeply feel that the weak
country had no diplomacy, and that France was strong and Italy was divided. In 1512, the Medici
tyranny was restored, Machiavelli was once arrested and imprisoned. After he was released from prison
in 1513, he stayed in the countryside, buried his head and wrote books, and lived in poverty. In the
daytime, he was a hard-working countryman in labor life. In the evening, he fantasized about the
temple, meeting with the ancients and explored the way of governing the country. After the restoration
of the Republic, Machiavelli hoped to return to the political arena with a political ambition to die
without depression.
As a politician, Machiavelli’s life is tragic and profound. Poor and miserable, Yongyu Rucheng,
Machiavelli completed the immortal realism classic The prince and its sister Discourses on the First
Ten Books of Titus Livius in difficult circumstances. In addition, Machiavelli also wrote the drama La
Mandragola (1513) to praise people’s wisdom and love, and criticized the hypocrisy and degeneration
of the church, which was not only a ridicule to the social morality at that time, but also a reflection of
the author’s attitude to moral ethics and the church. Alan Gilbert focused on Machiavelli and pointed
out that without reading La Mandragola he did not understand The prince. L’art de la guerre (1520),
the first modern military masterpiece, expounded the close relationship between military and politics in
the form of dialogue, and guided people to fight against aggression from military tactics, which was
better than the battlefield. Engels once highly evaluated Machiavelli’s contribution and believed that it
was a politician, a historian, a poet, and the first modern military writer worth mentioning. The book
Florentine histories (1525) Marx pointed out that the rule of the Pope was the root of Italy’s decline.
Machiavelli studies and summarizes Italy’s political and military aspects from a historical perspective,
explores the historical lessons of Italy’s decline, and explores the road to revitalize the motherland.
2.2 The Time Value of the Prince
Machiavelli discussed the quality of the new monarch from the history of Greece and Rome and the
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real politics in Italy, rather than demonstrating how to become Ceas are from the Christian doctrine and
the oracle of God. Robert D. Kaplan says, “Machiavelli is an outstanding Renaissance humanist whose
focus is on the people rather than God. He stressed the need for politics, not moral perfection, which
constituted his philosophical attack on the church.” On the one hand, the Prince made the state view of
political science get rid of the shackles of religious theology for the first time. The Prince was
independent of morality and ethics in political research. The separation of politics and morality opened
the process of modern political science, so Machiavelli became the father of modern political science.
In Machiavelli’s view, responsible monarchs need not act according to the church’s moral principles.
On the other hand, Machiavelli’s attitude towards religion is ambiguous. As a realist, he opposed
churches that bound state power rather than religion itself. On the contrary, religion can serve as an
ideological tool of state machinery to maintain rule. Moreover, he foresees the coming era of capitalist
development and nation-state. Therefore, the unification of Italy must get rid of the shackles of Roman
Catholic church.
Machiavelli’s thought is dominated by the times, and there are two kinds of worship plots: one is the
worship of tyrants with wisdom, and the other is the worship of freedom and autonomy. There are
contradictions between the two, but Machiavelli put them together as the theory of founding and
governing the country. Autocratic monarchy is aimed at the establishment and transformation of the
country. Once the country is on the right track, in order to maintain long-term stability, it must be done:
one is to allow people to participate in politics to a certain extent, the other is that the monarch must
govern according to law in the process of governing the country, and fully ensure that the property
rights and other rights of the subjects are not denied. Autocratic monarchy is a powerful political
medicine for Italy, which is very beneficial to save Italy’s national destiny. If used improperly, it will
become a poison. After all, unification is still going to the road of bourgeois republic.
2.3 Discrimination of Two Machiavellianism
As a representative of Italy’s emerging bourgeoisie in the late Middle Ages, Machiavelli advocated
ending Italy’s political division and establishing a strong centralized state. In the Prince, he believed
that the republican regime was the best form of state, but he also believed that the republican system
was unable to end Italy’s fragmentation. The implementation of monarchy was only an expedient
measure to save Italy. The violence of the monarchy was a medicine that could make subjects obey,
resist the invasion of strong enemies, and treat morbid countries. He emphasized that politics of power,
brutality, cunning, hypocrisy, lies and disbelief were justified as long as they were helpful to the rule of
the monarchy. This idea was called “Machiavellianism” by later generations, which became a typical
way for politicians to play politics, and even used as a theoretical basis for the implementation of
dictatorship.
Some people call Machiavelli a master of realism, some scholars call him an outstanding representative
of republicanism, and others call him a pluralistic liberal. He is seen as an extremely cynical person, a
passionate patriot, a strong nationalist, a political conspirator, a docile democrat and a shameless tyrant.
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The relationship between political trickery and Machiavelli can be divided into two groups: one group
believes that political trickery is evil, and then believes that he is evil, labelling Machiavelli as evil. The
other view is that power itself does not care about evil. It is believed that power is a tool and means to
achieve rule, and there is no good or evil in itself. Moreover, Machiavelli is also a patriot, and its actual
behavior is understandable and reasonable. The multiple definition of Machiavelli’s identity, on the one
hand, because the scholars want to give their own theory to seek support, on the other hand also shows
that many scholars on Machiavelli’s ideological interpretation is controversial. The Blackwell
encyclopaedia of political thought defines Machiavellianism as “Machiavellianism means that in the
process of people’s pursuit of purpose, there is no need for moral scruples, and the result determines the
legitimacy of the method.” The two meanings of Machiavellianism are at the human level, in the
interests of the individual by any means. At the national level, for the interests of the collective and
community have to take unjust means.
In the modern context, Machiavelli’s thought has been dwarfed as “no means to achieve the goal”.
Politicians have apparently attacked Machiavelli, but they have always wondered how to achieve their
political goals by using inferior means. In fact, the world misread Machiavelli, power theory is not
“persuade people to do evil”, he did not deny the legitimacy of good deeds, but under certain
conditions to give power rationality. Hans Morgenthau realized the important role of morality,
“political realism understands the moral significance of political action,” but he then discussed that
“realism insists that universal moral principles cannot be applied to state behavior in abstract universal
forms, and moral principles must be filtered through specific time and place environments.” Therefore,
prudent realists believe that in order to achieve national interests and compete for international political
dominance, sometimes have to take inferior means, this Machiavellianism is reasonable.

3. Machiavelli’s Political Thought

The theme of Machiavelli’s political thought is to be a qualified monarch, focusing on what the
monarchy is, what kind it has, how it gets, how it maintains and why it loses. Based on the evil nature
of human nature, Machiavelli requires the monarch to obtain experience from history to control the evil
human nature, and form Machiavelli’s utilitarian view of history. The book is dedicated to Lorenzo
Medici, one is to hope that the monarch can achieve the great position allowed by its quality; second,
hope to get the favor of the monarch, get rid of the unfortunate fate. The political thought in the Prince
can be simply summarized into three points: the state regime, the military system and the monarchy.
3.1 On National Regime
In the Prince, Machiavelli discusses the types of monarchy in 11 chapters, the ways to obtain the ruling
power and their respective characteristics and means to retain them, and puts forward how to rule and
how to make the monarchy long-term stability. Countries are divided into republics and monarchies,
and monarchies are divided into hereditary monarchies, mixed monarchies, new monarchies, citizen
monarchies and church monarchies. For the time being, the Republic can rely on others’ force or rely
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on their own force or good luck. Different monarchies have different consolidation and maintenance
strategies.
The monarchs of hereditary monarchies only need to have the usual ability, do not change the ancestral
system, and do random response. Even if they are seized of power, they can still restore the old things,
and it is difficult to restore them. The long-term rule makes the memory and cause of change annihilate,
so that they can be passed down from generation to generation. A newly established monarchy, namely
the hybrid monarchy, faces various difficulties. People want to improve their situation and change their
rulers. Later experience often shows that things are contrary to their wishes, so that they cannot bear
the torture of the new monarch. Therefore, Machiavelli proposed that as long as the rulers take
advantage of the opportunities provided by the rebellion to punish criminals without hesitation, make
clear the suspects, and prepare in the weakest place to strengthen their status, it will be difficult to lose
the rebel area.For the same region, the same language, only exterminate the old monarch blood, but not
change the legal tax, treatment of different languages, customs and various institutional areas, the
internal conquerors should be stationed in person, the monarchs (as the Turks do in Greece), sending
colonial rather than garrison troops, externally, it appeases the weak country, inhibits the powerful
country, and balances the power. Rome defends itself against the slightest threat, and when it takes the
opportunity to assert itself, France destroys itself. Therefore, an iron law can be drawn: who is the
reason for the strongness of others, who will perish himself. For the threat to the rule of security forces,
must be hard-hearted, weeding, connivance of their hostile forces, is to cultivate their grave diggers.
There are two completely different situations in the maintenance of regime system and national
stability: a monarch and a group of officials dominate Turkey, the monarch is supreme, and the loyalty
of subjects is difficult to occupy but easy to maintain. In France, ruled by the monarch and the vassals,
the power of the vassals was not derived from the monarch, and the subjects were loyal to their
respective rulers, which was easy to occupy but difficult to maintain. Conquest and rule of a free state
before occupation: First, destruction. Second, the monarch stationed himself. Third, support the puppet
government. Due to the slow resistance of the monarchy, as long as the monarchy is eliminated, the
people will neither elect a new monarch, nor understand what freedom is, and can easily obtain it. As
for the Republic with strong vitality, hatred and revenge, the most reliable way is to eliminate and
maintain it.
One way to obtain a new monarchy is to rely on their own force and ability, rely on opportunities rather
than fate, and it is difficult to keep business. Moise and Salvo Ciro, the former seized the opportunity
that the Israeli nation did not want to be enslaved, the latter perceived the Persians’ dissatisfaction with
the Medirule. Do not rely on luck to maintain a stable position, take new rules and regulations to ensure
national security, and the old system beneficiaries revenge, but not the new system beneficiaries for
friends. the opponents master the law which is beneficial to their own, so that the beneficiaries of the
new system are afraid. The new system has not yet landed, so it is better to continue “let the bullet fly”.
Because of the fear of the enemy and the doubt of the new things, the monarch with them is always
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dangerous, so when people no longer believe in, they rely on force to force them to model, that is, all
armed prophets have won the victory, rather than armed prophets have failed.
The second way to obtain a new monarchy is to rely on the force of others or because of luck, it is
difficult to obtain a monarchy. Simply rely on other people’s recognition of good intentions and luck,
changeless, unstable, booming countries, as nature rapidly breed all life, the lack of deep-rooted,
crisscross, can not withstand the destruction of the storm. Francesco Sforza and Ceasare Borgia, the
former rely on their outstanding ability to obtain a very hard position and maintain a very difficult
position, the latter rely on the exchange of interests between his father and France to obtain Romania,
after the ambitions of France was blocked, through the reward of money, according to the status of the
ranks of the promotion of official rank cage rival forces become allies. To exterminate the family of
deposed rulers, to fight for all the Roman aristocrats to suppress the New Pope, to win the favor of the
Pivot Archbishop and to gain greater power while his father is alive, the only reason why Borgia can be
blamed, that is, the reason for his demise is to elect the Pope: believe in giving new favors to make a
great man forget the damage of the past and deceive himself!
The third way to obtain monarchical power is to use the evil way, the same means of rape and brutality,
Agatocle by the hands of the Carthages to kill the Senate, seize Sicily, can live safely in the country.
Within one year of Oliverotto’s possession of the country, it endangers urban security and the eyes of
neighboring countries, and it is difficult to maintain rule. The reason lies in the proper use or harsh use
of brutal means, the damage to the people and the brutal need to be completed once, and strive to
reduce damage and resentment. Gratitude to the people should be given one by one, so that the people
can better taste the taste of favor and always feel the king’s virtue.
The fourth way to obtain monarchy is to rely on the help of aristocrats or civilians. In a city, there are
two opposing parties between people and aristocrats, which are generated in the city: monarchy,
autonomy or anarchy. It is more difficult for a monarch to rely on aristocrats to obtain monarchical
power than on the people, because the gap between aristocrats and their status is small, it is difficult to
command, and the needs of civilians are easy to handle and centralized. Managing aristocrats: First,
respect the emperor’s orders, not greedy to be loved. Second: do not rely on the monarch, natural
timidity can be used, such people respect the monarch, adversity without fear. Third, out of ambition,
do not rely on the monarch, to guard against adversity when not subject to the heart. It is necessary for
the monarch to keep friendly with the people in order to avoid being in adversity. It is a dangerous state
for a monarchy to shift from civilian politics to autocratic politics. Replacing self-governance with
official governance, it is dominated by the will of officials in times of crisis, and there is a risk of
usurping power. Therefore, a wise monarch needs to consider allowing people to seek monarch at all
times.
The measure of the power of the monarchy: whether the monarch can rely on their own human and
financial resources to determine the battlefield, or stick to help. According to the city’s defense of the
monarch, through the city’s strict barriers, food and grass, give up the countryside outside the city, deal
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with relations with people, for people’s support, to break through such a monarch is not easy. To let the
people live together with the city, a strong and bold monarch is needed to encourage the people to
believe that the scourge will not last long, and make the people fear the cruelty of the enemy. For a long
time, the enemy destroyed the suburbs of the city, and the monarch gave mercy to make his citizens
strong and guard the city.
All the difficulties of the church sovereign state come from the ability or luck to obtain the church
sovereign state before it is obtained, while keeping it depends on the ancient religious system. Under
this ancient system, the pope was in power without restriction, with the state without defense, with the
subjects without governance, and the regime was not seized. Officials and people did not mind and did
not intend to abandon the monarch. The powerful secular power of the Roman church stems from the
consequences of Alexander VI’s territorial expansion using his son, Prince Valentino. When Pope Julio
was succeeded, the Holy See was granted the entire territory of Romania, and Rome was awaiting
weakness. By continuing its predecessor’s policy, the Holy See occupied Romania, eliminated the
Venetian, expelled the French from Italy, raised the status of the Church and firmly controlled the
Orsine and Colonnesi factions. The powerful Pope will get more respect by virtue of good deeds and
virtue.
This part fully shows Machiavelli’s theory of monarchical hegemony by discussing the state regime:
“Who is to promote others to be strong, who will exterminate himself”, “Should care for people, or
eliminate”. He paid great attention to strategies to achieve the above theories. These propositions and
theories reflected his hegemony thought, the way of governing the country and the political system
thought of “taking whatever means to achieve the purpose”.
3.2 On Military System
The second part discusses the military system. Machiavelli proposed that a monarchy without excellent
military forces cannot have good discipline. As long as the military is strong, the monarchy must have
good law. The army is the pillar of national unity. The monarch should pay attention to the construction
of the army to consolidate his rule, focus on the types and characteristics of the army, analyze in detail
the military system thought, and expound the importance of force and the army, classify the types of the
army as mercenaries, foreign aid, mixed army and national army, and discuss in detail the origin of
mercenaries and foreign aid.
If there is no good army there is no good law. All countries are mainly based on good laws and
excellent military. At the same time, excellent military is also the premise of good laws. Secondly, it is
pointed out that mercenaries and aid forces are the culprits that cause Italy’s fragmentation. The
monarch defends his country’s army either his own army, or mercenaries, aid forces, mixed forces. The
harm of the mercenary is that the mercenary can’t rely on, no unity, ambition, no discipline, no loyalty,
war for food and money, can’t win the collapse of the gossip, lucky win to coerce the employer. The
mercenary leaders who are capable and ambitious are not trusted by the monarch, and it is useless to
appoint agents. The entire armed forces of Rome, Sparta and Switzerland enjoy full freedom and must
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therefore establish a regular military regime. Finally, the Pope played a greater role in secular affairs.
The power of the Roman Holy See rose, the monarchy was weakened, the power of God exceeded that
of Ceasare, and the proliferation of mercenaries aggravated the division of Italy.
Assistance is more dangerous than mercenaries. Assistance itself is good and useful. Once aid fails, the
monarch will be isolated and helpless, and once victory becomes a prisoner of aid. The combat
effectiveness of the aid forces is far more than that of the mercenaries, but the danger is far more than
that of the mercenaries. The mercenaries are lax in discipline, weak in combat effectiveness and
mindful of money. It takes time and opportunity to win the harmed monarch by luck, and they are also
controlled by the agents of the mercenary countries. Aid forces are united, brave and fierce, and
completely obey foreign orders, which makes their destructiveness far greater than mercenaries. In
terms of combat effectiveness, national army > hybrid army (army of Louis XI) > foreign aid army >
mercenary. Hazard coefficient: aid army > mercenary army > hybrid army > national army. Loyalty:
national army > hybrid army > mercenary army > aid army. In summary, the best military system
should be the National Army, followed by hybrid army, mercenary army, and foreign aid army.
Therefore, the wise monarch would rather rely on his own army to defeat than rely on the force of
others to win, he believes that relying on others is not a real victory. “The weakest and the weakest
thing in the world is the power and reputation based on the power of others”. A stable monarchy must
have its own army, composed of its own officials, citizens or people.
Military responsibility of the monarch, in Machiavelli military is the only profession of the monarch. In
addition to war, military system and training, the monarch should not have other goals, other ideas, and
should not take other things as their own profession, because it is the only profession for the
commander. Military affairs can maintain the status of those who are born kings, and also enable
people to leap to the throne. Born in trouble and die in peace, the primary reason for the death of the
monarch is to ignore military affairs. Armed people disdain and refuse to obey unarmed people,
unarmed people suspect armed people, and the monarch cannot be respected by soldiers, and cannot
trust them so that they cannot coexist peacefully. In peacetime, the monarch should pay more attention
to military than in war time. First, through taking actions, such as hunting, physical exercise, hard
habits, understanding mountains and rivers to better protect the motherland and apply to other places.
Second, by thinking, in peacetime it is necessary to think more about the method of war, the monarch
Filipomene often thinking training to be able to deal with any unexpected events. In addition to military
thinking training on the ground, it is necessary to study historical great men and examine the reasons
for their success in the war. A wise monarch should abide by making good use of precious time in
peacetime and concentrate on military affairs in order to prepare for counterattack in adversity.
Machiavelli strongly criticized the harm of mercenaries in the military system, and believed that
“Italy’s current decline is the cause of long-term dependence on mercenaries”. It also analyzes the
disadvantages of relying on mercenaries and foreign aid and mixed forces. In times of chaos, the
monarch must hold heavy armies to end the dispute and achieve order. Even the saints cannot make
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people abide by the law by their own teachings. A qualified monarch should establish an army that is
only loyal to himself in order to give play to leadership at a critical moment. He warned the monarch
that it was necessary to build and rely on a strong military force that he could command directly.
“Never let his thinking leave the question of military training”, Violence played an important role in
maintaining the dominant position of the monarch, and force brought about profound changes in the
order of human society.
3.3 On the Power of Monarchs
The way to obtain monarchical power is right and wrong, malignant also has a good side, emphasizing
the inferior means to be completed at one time, unless it is beneficial to the subjects, the future can
never be used again. The third part of the fifteenth to twenty-sixth chapters is the key content of this
book, focuses on the monarch’s rule and the right to life, expounds Machiavelli’s right and strategic
thinking. This part will control the subjects and the national outlook through the monarch’s quality, and
analyze that a qualified monarch should learn to maintain majesty and smoothness at the same time.
The subjects should be feared and loved. The monarch should avoid dependence on the castle, avoid
crooked subjects, and always warn himself.
3.3.1 On the Quality of Monarch
In terms of morality, a monarch must know how to do things that are not entirely ethical and how to
choose to use or retain the means as appropriate. In fact, life is far from how to live. People should live
in the present to avoid self-destruction. To maintain their status, the monarch must know how to do bad
things and take measures according to the actual situation. The quality of the monarch is more likely to
cause praise or blame, praise his generosity, mercy, compassion, honesty and so on, and depreciate him
stingy, greedy, cruel, dishonest and so on. The monarch’s attribute does not allow him to possess and
maintain all the good qualities. The wise monarch should know how to avoid the evil deeds of the dead
country, and retain the laissez-faire under the conditions permitted will not lead to the evil deeds of the
dead country. There is no need to tangles between evildoing and regime, nor to blame themselves for
evildoing. The only law of sovereign behavior: to retain power!
There is no precise definition of the quality of the monarch in The Prince. Machiavelli follows the
authority of classical and humanism, and interprets the quality of the monarch as helping the monarch
resist the attack of the goddess of luck, striving for her favor, so as to reach the peak of the reputation
of the monarch, win honor and glory for himself, and win stability for the regime. It is embodied in the
metaphors of generosity and meanness, cruelty and kindness, and keeping promises.
The monarch should not mind the name of stinginess. Generosity will make the monarch fall into
disdain and hatred. If the monarch uses his own generosity, he will inevitably run out of money. If he
wants to retain the name of generosity, he will inevitably levy atrocities and increase the burden on the
people. His subjects begin to hate him and despise him. This generosity can only benefit a few. The
monarch will also take the lead in times of crisis and get the name of stinginess. The monarch was
generous to most people by saving and resisting foreign aggression with abundant income. In order to
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become a monarch before generosity is necessary, but the monarch generosity will attract contempt and
hatred, miser although not good will not attract hatred. If the monarch’s expense comes from himself
and his people, he must be thrifty and can be as generous as possible by looting, extorting and using the
enemy’s money, because generosity is not only damaging to fame but also rising to fame. A wise
monarch would rather bear the name of miser than pursue the reputation of generosity.
For Machiavelli, the problem is not the choice between good and evil, but the choice between ordinary
means and extraordinary means, and clarify the special nature of the state division in his era. Cruel or
kindness, loved or feared, the cruelty of the monarch to create order is more than the excessive
kindness to be kind. Excessive benevolence ignores the unrest and damages the whole society. Only a
few people execute punishment. The founding monarch is facing a dangerous and complex situation at
home and abroad. The name of cruelty is inevitable. Trusting others or taking action must be careful,
but there is no need for a cup of bow and snake shadow. It is necessary to think carefully, act orderly,
not rash or suspect narrowly. Love and fear, both better, if must choose, fear is much safer for the
monarch. Love depends on grace, people are accustomed to profit forget righteousness, money bought
not firm, fear will make people for fear of punishment and cast a rat scrutiny, offending their loved
ones than offending their fear of a lot less scrutiny. The monarch should not deprive his own people of
their property, and should not mean that their wives and daughters should avoid being hated by people.
“People forget that the death of their father is faster than the loss of their inheritance.” People can
forgive the murderer of their father, but they will not forgive those who deprive them of their
inheritance. Therefore, smart rulers will kill people, but they will not plunder their subjects. Annibale’s
achievements have benefited from his talents and ruthlessness. Scipione has been betrayed by the army
for being too kind. People love the monarch based on their own ideas, fear the monarch based on the
will of the monarch. A wise monarch should be based on his own will rather than the ideas of others.
What needs to be done is to avoid hatred.
The experience of the times shows that the great monarchs do not attach importance to keeping faith,
but conquer the people who have always kept faith by tricks. They are always skilled in using the two
complementary struggle methods of law belonging to human beings and force belonging to beasts. The
means of law often have defects. The monarch must use the means of beasts to achieve political
purposes. A monarch should be a mixture of man and beast. He should use law to fight for man. He
should be brave as a lion to shock a jackal as a fox to break a trap. As discussed above,
Machiavellianism at two levels is the essence of Machiavellianism in the narrow sense, and the means
of purpose proof is the internal logic of Machiavellianism in the sense of national rationality. A wise
monarch can never and should not abide by faith, especially the new monarch in which the
environment, determines his multiple personality, must always be ready to change. A monarch is not a
gentleman, but must be a hypocrite. People judge that the monarch depends on the eyes more than the
hands. Everyone can see the monarch but rarely touch it, and it is more difficult to understand the
monarch. Therefore, although the monarch does the same thing as the dog, he should pretend to be a
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modest monarch. During the conversation, he reveals compassion, faith, humanity, and respect for God,
“being a great disguiser and a good person”. In order to conquer and retain power, the monarch can do
anything. All actions of the monarch must be based on whether it is conducive to rule. It is necessary to
promote peace and faith, but compliance with either of them will make his reputation and power
grabbed.
The monarch’s greedy occupation of his subjects’ property, his wife and daughter, was hated, and his
fickleness and cowardice were despised. The monarch must avoid and prevent these, and be brave,
resolute and tenacious, and must give the subjects the impression that no one expects to deceive or hide
him! Threats faced by the monarch: conspirators and foreign forces within the people, as long as the
monarch from the people’s hate, both internal and external affairs can be tactful and playful. The latter
can be defended only by elite generals and close allies, while the former relies on the majesty of the
monarch, the law, the protection of allies and the goodwill of the people, which will make the
conspiracyrs dare not act rashly. The example of Annibale, the monarch of Polonia, is sufficient to
make the conspiracyrs understand that the conspiracy against the people’s happy and honest monarch is
bound to anger the people. One of the most important things of the wise monarch is not to force
aristocrats to meet the people at the same time. As one of the best countries in the order of the times,
the king of France restrains aristocrats to protect civilians through parliament, and is not contested by
aristocrats and non-refugee civilians. The things that bear responsibility entrust others to the people.
The monarch is in charge of the things that give people grace. It is necessary to attach importance to the
noble and protect the people. The Roman emperor faced three difficulties: the ambition of aristocrats,
the arrogance of the people and the brutal greed of the army. At the same time, it was difficult to satisfy
the peace-loving people who liked the gentle and humble monarch and the military who liked the brutal
greed monarch. The new emperor was in urgent need of army to help him and offend the people. The
reality decided that he could only avoid being hated by the most powerful party, and the monarch
wanted to retain the army to deal with the civilians. The reasons for the death of Roman emperors listed
in this paper are mostly hatred and contempt. Imitation of Marco and Severo is not only futile but also
extremely dangerous for them. It is more necessary for the emperors of the Roman and Turkish empires
to satisfy the military than the people, but now on the contrary, the first thing to consider is the people,
because the people are more powerful, which is undoubtedly a historical progress.
Machiavelli does not exclude benevolence. Benevolence towards others will lead to insecurity for most
people, which is inhuman for most people. What is to be achieved is the benevolence of all people,
which is a more macroscopic and comprehensive view of benevolence. Although his theory also has the
consideration of the interests of the monarch itself, the ultimate goal is for all people. To a certain
extent, Machiavelli’s support for kingship and monarchy is also in order to achieve the unity of modern
countries with kingship and develop capitalist economy, which requires great courage and tolerance of
loneliness. Machiavelli did not advocate the monarch’s “immorality” from the beginning. If conditions
permitted, he was very willing to use morality to achieve morality. However, Machiavelli lived in Italy
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during the Renaissance. At that time, the Italian separatist forces were very serious, and the city-state
countries were hostile to each other. The whole Italy was divided and ravaged by Spain, France and
other countries. In that context, Machiavelli advocated the establishment of a unified Italy to resist
external aggression and achieve the security and unity of the Italian people. In exceptional
circumstances, it is necessary to use extraordinary means. Obviously, at that time, it was impossible for
a gentleman who was indecisive to complete the task of unifying Italy. What Italy needed was a strong
and powerful monarch.
3.3.2 On the Control of Subjects
When it comes to the relationship between the monarch and his subjects, Machiavelli advocates that the
monarch armed some of his subjects, making them become their own force and giving them grace.
Others will also understand and recognize that the armed will face danger and responsibility. The
reward should be appropriate, the monarch will be loved, the armed subjects will be more loyal, and
others will fear the monarch. Once you want to disarm, it will be regarded as timid or discredited, and
hatred is also bred. To obtain a new country or territory, it is necessary to disarm the country and
weaken the power to follow itself. The machine of violence must be in the hands of the monarch’s own
army. Machiavelli believes that a strong monarchy will never allow a state to divide and that it is useful
to control its people in peacetime, and that war is deadly. A wise monarch will deliberately set up
enemies and demonstrate his greatness by conquering them. At the beginning of the country, the former
hostile monarchs seek self-preservation and eliminate bad impressions by serving the monarch more
faithfully. if the local people who sponsor the new monarch are not full of feelings to the new monarch,
but only dissatisfied with the former government, making friends with them is very difficult, and
winning the sponsorship of the enemy who is satisfied with the former government is far easier than the
support of the friends who are dissatisfied with the former government. For the monarch, the most solid
fortress is not hated by the people. Once the people pick up weapons, domestic and foreign forces will
inevitably unite to endanger security.
King Ferdinando of Spain often resorts to state power to do great things so that opponents do not have
time to act against them and attract domestic forces to do great things. The Duke of Milan, Bernabo,
likes to be eye-catching in the administration of the interior and relies on action to win fame. When
encountering the war between the two great powers, you remain neutral, and the winner does not need
to be in adversity to assist his suspicious friends. The loser will not shelter you, and will always be the
winner’s prize. A clear expression of sponsors, the union won, although dominated, for the sake of
justice can also be thoughtful, the union failed, won the war in the future will still be appreciated, thus,
the weak country must not maintain neutrality. When confronted by two weak countries, careful
consideration must be given to supporting one side to win. Unless you have to, you must never
introduce foreign powers to attack other countries, because even if you win, your country will become
a captive of powerful countries. It is difficult for any country to take full advantage and avoid
disadvantages, to be cautious about the disadvantages and to choose the best path to the least. In
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addition, the monarch should show that he cherishes talents, encourages farmers and businessmen,
enjoys with the people, is modest and generous and so on, but must always maintain dignity!
Whether the monarch is wise or not is judged by the officials’ loyalty. The virtuous ministers put the
interests of the monarch in the highest pursuit, holding the weight of power and being deeply trusted by
the monarch. Therefore, the monarch must make such officials glorious, rich and noble, and even worry
about regime change. For the monarch, flattering false words will make the monarch self-satisfied and
self-moved. Frankly speaking the truth will make the monarch despised. A wise monarch must select
people with knowledge to have the right to speak directly to the monarch, but only as an advisory
suggestion, according to his own views, the will of the monarch will never change! The emperor of the
holy Roman Empire, Maximiliano, changed his decrees and lost faith in his subjects. The monarch
must consult frequently and listen patiently to the truth. Hearing false words for whatever reason must
be angered and punished. He must bear in mind that the good minister’s loyalty comes from the
emperor, not the good minister’s loyalty. The implication is that the monarch is always right. Even if
this right is found by others, it can only be said through the mouth of the monarch. There are many
things “always right” in the world, the essence is right power. Anyone’s intelligent labor results can be
labeled with power, concentrated on the monarch himself, in order to establish the prestige of the
monarch.
The best fortress of the monarch is to avoid being hated by the people. The physical fortress has no use
but to alleviate the insecurity of the monarch. When the people take up weapons, the fortress is futile. It
seems that the use of gunpowder blew the knight class to pieces. The fundamental reason is that the
people at this time, accurately speaking, the bourgeoisie entered the stage of history and became the
force that must be united by all monarchs who wanted to seek dictatorship. The core issue of the
metaphor of fortress is not the external symbol of fortress. When the monarch holds the popular will,
the regime is stable. When the monarch loses the popular will, the people turn to smash this decadent
system and establish a new state apparatus. Machiavelli implicitly recognized the trend of historical
development, the development of capitalism, the rise of humanism and the emerging autocratic
monarchy has been calling out. The monarch must pay attention to the interests of the people, that is, to
unite the power of the emerging bourgeoisie, so that the monarch can break through the repression of
its power by the Roman Church, and the bourgeoisie can use the power of the new monarch to break
through the feudal shackles that restrict its development. That is already the consensus of all new
monarchs and the bourgeoisie, except the rotten Turkish Sudan and the distant ancient Rome.
3.3.3 On National Perspectives
He urged the monarch to act actively, conform to the trend of history, and even pin his hopes on the
Medici family, organizing a new army to unify Italy.The measures of the new monarch are more likely
to attract people’s attention. As long as his wise talents are recognized, the people will be loyal to him
and their achievements will be praised by the people. The reasons for the failure of the Italian monarch:
relying on mercenaries and aid without their own army, being contempt by the people, not knowing
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how to balance the nobles to protect themselves. Filippo V of Macedonia loved the people bravely and
knew how to guard against aristocrats. Although he finally lost some territories, the state remained, and
the monarchs who enjoyed the kingdom for many years but lost the state were by no means troubled by
fate but incompetent. Destiny is dominated by only half of our actions, mostly by ourselves. Destiny
floods vividly tell us that devastating disasters cannot be prevented, but can be prepared for it, and the
national movement of Italy can be protected through appropriate force. When the fate is changing, as
long as the ways and means adhere to the characteristics of the times, like Pope Julio II do not seek
perfection, brave and rapid, coordinate time and events, it is easy to succeed.
Machiavelli advocates that the monarch (Lorenzo Medici) actively change the fate and conform to the
historical trend. First of all, in terms of opportunity, the opportunity of Moises’ outstanding ability is
the slavery of the Israelis in Egypt, the opportunity of the great spirit of Salvo is the oppression of the
Persians by the Mediians, the opportunity of Tessius’ outstanding performance is the displacement and
dispersion of the Athenians, and now Italy is desperate, more enslaved than the Hebrews, more
oppressed than the Persians, more displaced than the Athenians, looted and ravaged. Borgia seems to
have a ray of hope, but he failed. Our Highness Lorenzo’s opportunity at this time was far greater than
that of them, and his career was more just. Secondly, in terms of leadership, Lorenzo is wise and
talented, the royal family has both luck and prominence, God and the church love blessing. Again, as
far as national quality is concerned, the Italians are clever, tactful and brave in fighting, and always
failed because of weak leadership and incompetent management. Finally, as far as future development
is concerned, the hope lies in the Medici family, as long as the resolutions of the monarchy follow the
law of those who save the country’s outstanding figures, the formation of their own army, will be able
to work hard to liberate Italy from barbarians, unified Italy.

4. Thoughts and Inspirations

The study of Machiavelli’s political thought is not only a historical environment in Italy from the 15 the
16th century, but also a narrow historical fragment. As a masterpiece in the history of political theory,
Machiavelli and his The Prince bring us infinite thinking and enlightenment.
Machiavelli’s political thought in the interests of the limitations. On the one hand, starting from the
“evil human nature”, Machiavelli unilaterally attributed human nature to hypocrisy and greed, selfish,
that even the best people are prone to corruption and degeneration, because doing evil is beneficial to
themselves, speaking false words can please others. On the other hand, the pursuit of the maximization
of national interests, even ignore the importance of morality, which will only lead to other countries’
sense of insecurity, and eventually fall into the “security dilemma” of mutual insecurity. The biggest
problem is that it has a tendency to slide towards extreme realistic politics, that is, any policy that is
conducive to the country is accepted, no matter how much moral problems it has. In extreme cases,
driven by national security and national interests, realism may develop a tendency of violence. Finally,
Machiavelli’s political thought still has some methods worthy of reference, we should be the
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Renaissance Machiavelli’s political thought and “Machiavelliism” to be strictly distinguished. But as

Marx and Engels put it, “(the bourgeoisie) makes no connection between people except for naked
interests and ruthless cash transactions. As a spokesman for the bourgeoisie, Machiavelli’s realistic
view of interests is essentially to establish a bourgeois state and safeguard the interests of the
bourgeoisie.”
“Not for Ceasare, rather for nothing”. Although the spirit of perseverance for the highest ideal is worthy
of sympathy, it is doomed to fail in violation of the law of social and historical development. First of all,
an attempt to unify Italy with the military conquest of individual new monarchs, rather than relying on
the power of nationalism to mobilize the broad masses of the people, will hope that the princes will be
contrary to the historical impetus of the people. Secondly, God’s power exceeded Ceasare’s power.
Western Europe was on the eve of the rise of the nation-state, and the Pope’s authority was still
shrouded in Italy. Ironically, with the help of Borgia’s Southern Expedition and Northern War, the
enemy of the Catholic Church was objectively eliminated, and the Pope’s political power reached its
peak during Julio II. Finally, the monarch’s personality defects, the lack of moral, in the use of power is
not as good as the final anti-eophagy itself, even fluke to achieve unity is doomed not long.

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