Niccolo Machiavelli: Fear and Love
“It is seen also that she is ready and willing to follow a banner if only someone will raise it.” — Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince
Within his masterpiece The Prince, dedicated to Lorenzo di Piero de’ Medici in pursuit of an advisory position in 1532, Niccolo Machiavelli lays instructions on governance, hoisting individuals to power, mercenaries, and, most importantly, fear and love.
I. Governance
Lands are governed in two different, distinct ways. First of which is governed by the prince and his servants: the prince allows servants to aide him, however, they require his permission in respect to mundane adjudications, such as manipulating small markets for coin, interfering with private property owned by peasants, and so on.
The second, of which are made of princes and barons, are constituted with individuals who own independent subjects and states. In relation to the first governance, the prince is held in higher esteem than in the second. This is, according to Machiavelli, shouldered by the observation that no one is arranged in a higher hierarchical position than the prince himself. The Turks of the sixteenth century, for instance, were governed by a prince unwatched by wise lords who had been saturated in their own luxuries. Instead, those who surrounded the prince were seen as slaves, bound by…
