Is it better to be loved or feared?
During his eight years in political exile,
Italian politician and philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli wrote his most famous work, "The Prince."
In it, he asked, "Is it better to be loved than feared or feared than loved?"
For ages, the right to rule was determined by heredity.
You were born into sovereignty, and your right to rule was backed by the divine right of kings.
Machiavelli describes a new type of leader, one strong enough to gain power through influence alone.
Hereditary rule is for losers who can't gain power on their own!
Moral goodness isn't necessary for leadership.
For example, power isn't given or maintained by doing good deeds.
In fact, Machiavelli thinks good guys finish last — at least in elections.
If a leader is too focused on goodness,
they may never gain power or be strong enough to do what is best for the people.
In the end, a reliance on virtue might even hurt the state.
Machiavelli popularized the idea that the ends justify the means.
This doesn't mean that people should get to do whatever they want for a good end.
Rather, the end — in this case, gaining power — justifies the means.
Moral concepts just don't apply to political actions.
One of the most discussed people in "The Prince" is Cesare Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI.
Cesare beheaded one of his particularly ruthless goons and put the body on display in public,
in order to make a statement with his subjects.
If it maintains order, Machiavelli claims, the use of force and fear are legitimate tools of a leader.
For Machiavelli, then, a good leader needs to get their hands a little dirty.
Assassinations, coups, unscrupulous wiretaps, arranged marriages, using coercive force,
or sending a robot back in time — say, forty-five years —
to kill the leader of a rebel army's mother, so they are never born –
all of these actions would be justified if it protected the people.
Is shouldn't be a surprise, then, that ruthless or conniving characters are called Machiavellian.
Is it better to be feared than loved? In this world of shady political alliances and betrayal,
what's love got to do with it?