Political Philosophy and Machiavelli Essay

Niccolo Machiavelli is best known for his extremely controversial ideas on administration. He began defend-up ab kayoed his political ideas subsequently the french invasion because of his desire to reunite Italy after the f every(prenominal) of the republic. As a improver, Machiavelli dis hold backd with the true spiritual based regime that were dictated in place at the time. His military personnelist ideas allowed him to focus his political ideas on adult male potential and achievement or else than religious themes. blush though Machiavelli had a bitter view on the genius of human bes, his unique understanding of the relationship amongst virtue and politics situated the fundamentals for modern political acquaintance, and some of his ideas peck still be observed in Ameri mint politics today. Before Machiavellis new ideas on political science, politics had been comprised around the ideas of the Christian perform building. Politics set up by the perform relie d hard on considerably ethics and virtue. The church praised leaders that give birthed qualities such as honesty, forgiveness, chastity, and faithfulness.Machiavelli rejected classic Christian value when thinking about politics and alone considered qualities that were useful in preserving personnel. Machiavelli had a precise variant idea on the particular(prenominal) qualities that a cheeseparing prince should possess. He put on that plurality in power that possess thoroughgoing(a) qualities could be easily interpreted advantage of. He viewed these qualities about commonwealth oblige as good qualities, as a weakness, which could mean the downfall of a state. He believed that the church should only form its rights in the spiritual real numberm and not in politics.Since he felt that Christianity destroys the state, he believed that the church should have restricted power in politics. Thus resulting in his ideas on separating the church from state. The more Machiavell is ideas on organisation strayed from the Christian sublimes, the more his ideas on politics began to bound our current American governing. This idea of the separation amongst church and state is only one of some(prenominal) similarities Machiavellis political ideas reflects American authorities.Similarities ar seen in the organization of power through with(predicate) guardianship in the military. Also, his ideas can be seen in American politics when our presidents chance on finishs based on what is nearly beneficial, nevertheless if it is not al expressions the most virtuous action. Probably one of Machiavellis most influential ideas on politics was his whimsy that it is better to be fe atomic number 18d than to be love. In his eye, existence attentioned was desirable over being love since the circumstances of the world make it impossible to be both loved and feared in sequence.He understood it to be crucial that the mess respect his function and power in order for him to be able to maintain unity and fealty from his people deep down the state. The only way he believed this to be possible, was to remove himself from compassion and build fear in the people through cruelty. As long as he was able to avoid being hated, this allowed him to rely on what he could control. This idea that it is better to be feared than to be loved can easily be seen within the American military. Powerful armies are not built under friendship and good virtue.They are built under fear and respect. As Americans, we have one of the most powerful military forces in the world. We do not achieve this power by fashioning other countries love us. If we were solely loved to procure respect, rather than feared to gain respect, when the pressure of dis moderatement arose other countries would not hesitate in the decision to attack. So long as we are feared we incur more power over the decision to go through rash action against conflict. by dint of fear our military gua rantees our countries continuous certificate and prosperity.On the other hand, when it comes to our presidents stand on the question of being loved or feared, it would seem that they would take the opposite stance on the issue. Our American presidents dont seem to groom at being feared over loved. They consume our minds with the characteristics we find desirable. They aim at making us love, trust, and respect them. Yet, they generally look for to achieve this love through lies. The governance wants us as citizens to love rather than fear, to that extent as an entire nation, the government aims at remaining a dire and powerful force in the eyes of other nations.This leads to another difference between American politics, and Machiavellian ideas. Machiavelli stated, it is proper to deliver things as they are in real truth, rather than as they are imagined (p. 8). He wanted to avoid creating an imaginary ideal society, as the Christian based politics had before him. In this iss ue, our government seems to reflect the Christian idea more than Machiavellis idea of truth. Americas presidential candidates create their campaigns according to the standards each hold political party would consider to be their ideal image of government.These candidates make promises of finished ethics and virtue, however, after being elect into office, they very rarely hail through with these promises and ideas of perfection that they have convinced us to believe. They present us with these ideal characteristics in order to receive the popular vote, yet as Machiavelli has explained, as a convention in order to maintain prosperity and security it is not ideal to follow through with fantasies of virtuous leaders. It would be victorian if our presidents followed Machiavellis advice and were straightforward and truthful from the start.Since people do not vote for realness and would rather vote for the fairytale, it does not invent out his way in our democracy. Machiavellis id eas on the significance of virtue in politics may be a result of the way he views human nature. Since he has little hope in the goodness of humanity, he does not open leaders to the highly positive qualities that the church does. Machiavelli is well known for his interdict views on human nature. Even today his name is still largely associated with disgustfulness. He believed all people to naturally be ungrateful, fickle, liars, and deceivers.He even went so far as to refer to people as miserable creatures. I feel that Machiavellis ideas are solid and well thought out. Although, that does not mean that I completely agree with all his ideas, especially those on the nature of humans. I refuse to confer that military man is naturally evil willed. I ilk to see the good in people, and to me it seems that the good in this world greatly outweighs the bad. However, I also do not agree that Machiavelli is the tyrant that history has made him out to be.Overall, I believe that most of his ideas aimed at improving the well being of his state. Even though he came off as an evil man it seemed to me that he constantly had his states best interests in mind. The way I see it, his negative understanding of human nature obligate him to look at issues from a different perspective than most people of his time, and swarm his ideas behind the irrelevance of virtuous traits in a political leader. Many of Machiavellis ideas are reflected in American politics. Machiavelli believed in practicing the separation of church and state alone as America does.He believed that with fear came power, which is apparent in the United States military. Although many of Machiavellis ideas reflect American government there are a a couple of(prenominal) differences between the two, such as the qualities that can be viewed in presidential candidates and how our government goes about the real truth. Overall, Machiavellis ideas on virtue and fear, no matter how wicked in nature, seem to properly de em him the founder of the modern political science that our government has been founded off of still today.