Political Leaders In The Prince

In the early sixteenth century, Niccolò Machiavelli wrote The Prince, a book that explained how prince should act. At the time, the Italian city-states were each ruled separately by powerful families. Machiavelli had strong ideas of qualities he felt a prince should possess, and made those points clear throughout the book. These ideas not only had an effect on the leader the book was written for, but also political leaders long after Machiavelli’s time. For centuries, what is now Italy was broken up into much smaller city-states. In many cases, hugely powerful city-states had one family that was in charge of the state, while maintaining the appearance of a republic. This included the Sforza family ruling Milan, and the Medici family of Florence (McKay et al. 360). The Medici, a family

One of these leaders was the thirty-seventh president of the United States, Richard Nixon. Nixon, upon many occasions, took Machiavelli’s words and attempted to use them during his presidency (Reeves 177). These ploys were not always successful, such as when Nixon attempted to invite only high up religious figures to a dinner, under the guise of trying to resolve religious tension (178). This act, among others, seems to follow along with Machiavelli’s idea that using religion as a plea when undertaking great schemes is perfectly acceptable (Machiavelli 105). This instance, however, was not the only time Nixon’s attempts to institute Machiavellian ideas backfired. In another attempt at success, Nixon did everything he could to get a leg up on his opponents while trying to cover up his flaws. His tactics failed miserably and led to what is now known as Watergate (Reeves 504). Nixon, ultimately did his best to emulate Machiavellian ideas, however he couldn’t always execute them in the right way, leading to shame and