Flexibility to Maintain Power Anonymous College

The purpose of this essay is to evaluate to what extent Machiavelli presents an adaptability of nature and a willingness to enact change as the key contributors to achieving and maintaining power and glory in politics in Il Principe. Contrary to the contemporary Christian doctrine which considered fortune to be an impersonal force of nature, Machiavelli subscribed to the view of Fortuna as a woman, mercurial in temperament, who would bestow favor and remove it just as quickly. She needs, in the eyes of Machiavelli, to be handled violently by a strong man in possession of virtù, a word Machiavelli resists defining but which loosely refers to “that quality of energy, vitality and courage which enables man to achieve greatness and power”.[1] [1] Nicolai Rubinstein, from J.H. Burns and M. Goldie ed., ‘The Cambridge History of Political Thought 1450-1700’ (Cambridge. CUP, 1991).

Although Machiavelli recognizes that the Prince in an idealised world would possess only the traits considered moral and good, he highlights that “è tanto discosto da come si vive, a come si doveria vivere”[1], and as a result of which “un uomo che voglia fare in tutte le parte professione di buono, conviene che rovini fra tanti che non sono buoni.” In short...