{"id":906,"date":"2019-09-25T21:57:24","date_gmt":"2019-09-26T01:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst1010304f2019\/?p=906"},"modified":"2019-09-25T21:57:24","modified_gmt":"2019-09-26T01:57:24","slug":"the-prince-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst1010304f2019\/2019\/09\/25\/the-prince-4\/","title":{"rendered":"The Prince"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Machiavelli\u2019s <em>The Prince<\/em>is basically a blueprint of what a successful leader looks like. For the most part, I think Machiavelli\u2019s work lays out what most people think of in terms of an effective leader in the highest position of power. The one, miniscule thing I did not agree with was his claim that a leader that comes into power through fortune has trouble maintaining their power. The entire monarchy in England disproves this; for nearly hundreds of years, England was ruled by a monarchy where the next seat on the throne was either given to someone in the family or someone who was designated by the monarch, barring conquest, of course.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Other than this claim, I found <em>The Prince <\/em>to be pretty reasonable. I was impressed with Machiavelli\u2019s explanation of how a leader can be feared yet maintain the popularity of their people. Machiavelli asserts that if a leader had to be either loved or feared, it is better to be feared. When I read this at first, I thought this directly contradicts his claim that in order to be an effective ruler, one must have their people behind them. However, he explains that fear and absence of hatred can go together. If the ruler can exercise their power without infringing on the property or liberty of his citizens, this balance is possible. Machiavelli further clarified his point that being feared is more secure than being loved by explaining that being loved is up to his people and is out of his control. Conversely, being feared is up to the ruler and in his full control.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, a topic that we discussed in class resurfaced in this reading. Machiavelli recognized that it is difficult for a leader to have all the traits he described as essential to a successful rule. He maintains that it is really the perception of having these traits that is important. In talking about the 6 characteristics of charismatic leaders, we concluded that it\u2019s the appearance of confidence that really matters, and it is unimportant whether or not the leader is actually confident.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Machiavelli\u2019s The Princeis basically a blueprint of what a successful leader looks like. For the most part, I think Machiavelli\u2019s work lays out what most&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst1010304f2019\/2019\/09\/25\/the-prince-4\/\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Prince<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4545,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst1010304f2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst1010304f2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst1010304f2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst1010304f2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4545"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst1010304f2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst1010304f2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst1010304f2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst1010304f2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst1010304f2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}