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Overview
One of the greatest political advisers of all time, Niccolò Machiavelli thought long and hard about how citizens could identify great leaders—ones capable of defending and enhancing the liberty, honor, and prosperity of their countries. Drawing on the full range of the Florentine's writings, acclaimed Machiavelli biographer Maurizio Viroli gathers and interprets Machiavelli's timeless wisdom about choosing leaders. The brief and engaging result is a new kind of Prince—one addressed to citizens rather than rulers and designed to make you a better voter.
Demolishing popular misconceptions that Machiavelli is a cynical realist, the book shows that he believes republics can't survive, let alone thrive, without leaders who are virtuous as well as effective. Among much other valuable advice, Machiavelli says that voters should pick leaders who put the common good above narrower interests and who make fighting corruption a priority, and he explains why the best way to recognize true leaders is to carefully examine their past actions and words. On display throughout are the special insights that Machiavelli gained from long, direct knowledge of real political life, the study of history, and reflection on the political thinkers of antiquity.
Recognizing the difference between great and mediocre political leaders is difficult but not at all impossible—with Machiavelli's help. So do your country a favor. Read this book, then vote like Machiavelli would.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780691170145 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Princeton University Press |
| Publication date: | 04/26/2016 |
| Pages: | 144 |
| Sales rank: | 1,141,597 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.00(w) x 7.00(h) x (d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
How to Choose a Leader
Machiavelli's Advice to Citizens
By Maurizio Viroli
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
Copyright © 2016 Princeton University PressAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-691-17014-5
CHAPTER 1
Citizens ought to "keep their hands on the republic" and "choose the lesser evil."
That is,
Intelligent citizens go to vote, and speak up.
When it is election time, many citizens choose not to discharge their civic duty because they believe that the act of voting is not that important for their lives. Our Counselor's advice on this matter is that citizens must "keep their hands on the republic" and know well "what they should do and whom they can trust." What he means is that wise citizens must be vigilant and keep their eyes fixed on public matters, if they want to prevent their republic from becoming the private possession of a few individuals. Going to vote is one of the means we have of telling our governors and our representatives that we care about the common good. When powerful citizens observe that ordinary citizens do not vote, they persuade themselves that since many of their fellow Americans do not care about the common good, it will be easy to impose their interests and their will, either through cunning or force, or both.
Machiavelli learned how vital it is for a republic that citizens actively participate in political life when he witnessed, between 1512 and 1516, the collapse of the Republic of Florence and the formation of a political regime controlled by the Medici family. When citizens are no longer willing, or capable, of properly executing their civic duties — because they are lazy, or corrupt, or because they believe that smart people are those who do nothing for their republic but nonetheless collect the benefits of others' sense of responsibility — republics decline and die, either because they are invaded or because they fall under the tyranny of one or a few astute and powerful individuals.
Our Counselor also realized that the safest defense of political liberty is the desire of ordinary citizens not to be dominated by the wealthy and the powerful: "They are most fit to have charge of a thing, who least desire to pervert it to their own ends. And, doubtless, if we examine the aims which the nobles and the commons respectively set before them, we shall find in the former a great desire to dominate, in the latter merely a desire not to be dominated over, and hence a greater attachment to freedom, since they have less to gain than the others by destroying it. Wherefore, when the commons are put forward as the defenders of liberty, they may be expected to take better care of it, and, as they have no desire to tamper with it themselves, to be less apt to suffer others to do so."
In addition to voting, we have at our disposal public meetings, rallies, and debates. Machiavelli was the first modern political writer to stress that citizens can and must use these means to express their concerns, particularly when rulers intend to pass laws that transgress fundamental political and social rights. If ordinary people raise their voices to fill the public squares, it becomes much harder for powerful citizens to impose their will and their interests. The outcome of political and social conflicts will then be a reasonable compromise that accommodates, at least in part, the concerns of different social groups. As long as no one can impose one's arbitrary will, the republic remains free. Machiavelli refers, it must be specified, to peaceful social conflicts. He condemns in the strongest possible terms violent social struggles that originate either from the people's wish to dominate the wealthy or from the nobles' desire to oppress the people.
Voting is, however, the most important expression of citizenship — more so in our times than in Machiavelli's day, when the right to choose governors and approve the laws of the republic was a privilege granted to a minority of citizens (to which Machiavelli himself did not belong). Defective as it might be, a democratic republic is preferable to any other political system. An aristocratic republic in which a restricted minority of citizens has the power to pass the laws and choose the rulers almost inevitably degenerates into an oligarchy of citizens who pursue only their self-interest: "because the few always judge in favor of the few." Entrusting sovereign power to a prince is even worse. With all their vices, Machiavelli warns us, the people are better than princes: "[A]s for prudence and stability of purpose, I affirm that a people is more prudent, more stable, and of better judgment than a prince. Nor is it without reason that the voice of the people has been likened to the voice of God; for we see that wide-spread beliefs fulfill themselves, and bring about marvelous results, so as to have the appearance of presaging by some occult quality either weal or woe. Again, as to the justice of their opinions on public affairs, [they] seldom find that after hearing two speakers of equal ability urging them in opposite directions, they do not adopt the sounder view, or are unable to decide on the truth of what they hear." Voting is the most eloquent way of saying that we are loyal to our democratic republic and that we are not interested in its alternatives.
What if no candidate entirely, or at least to a fair extent, convinces us that he or she deserves our vote? In this case Machiavelli invites us to consider that "prudence consists in knowing how to distinguish the character of troubles, and for choice to take the lesser evil." If citizens with high standards stay home, those with lower standards will elect corrupt or incompetent candidates who, once in Congress or in the White House, will foster policies that will damage the common good.
We should therefore vote, and if no candidate is in our judgment sufficiently good, let us vote for the lesser evil. But if we go, what criterion should we adopt to select the best among competing candidates?
CHAPTER 2"Judge by the hands, not by the eyes."
That is,
Politicians are to be judged by looking at what they are and what they do, not by their appearances.
With this advice, Machiavelli invites us to be wise and to avoid the mistake of believing that politicians are what they pretend to be. This, he adds, is a typical error of citizens with insufficient political wisdom: "the common people are always taken by appearances and by results, and it is the vulgar mass that constitutes the world." If we want to distinguish ourselves from the vulgar mass that is often and easily manipulated, deceived, and misled by corrupt politicians, we must then learn to judge "by the hands."
Easy to say, difficult to put into practice. To "judge by the hands" requires being so close to politicians that we can almost touch them. We need to know well their political biographies and also their personal stories. Very few of us have the opportunity, let alone the desire, to get so close to candidates for Congress or the White House. We see politicians from a distance, if we attend rallies, or on television. They are, moreover, masters in the art of simulation and dissimulation. They can show feelings they do not feel, like grief at tragic events, compassion for the miseries of poor people, indignation at injustices, loyalty to republican institutions, and so on. Or, they can conceal their true passions — thirst for power, egotism, greed, contempt for ordinary citizens. Not to mention their ability to use the power of words to present their actions in the most favorable light or to hide their faults. Pope Alexander V, Machiavelli writes, "never did nor ever thought of anything but to deceive, and always found a reason for doing so. [There was never anyone who] had greater skill in asseverating, or who affirmed his pledges with greater oaths and observed them less, than Pope Alexander; and yet he was always successful in his deceits, because he knew the weakness of men in that particular."
The remedy consists not so much in being close enough to politicians as to be able to grasp who they really are, but rather to look well at their hands; that is, to evaluate what they have done and what they are doing. What have they done in their legislatures on the most pressing issues of our republic — on individual rights, political liberty, social justice, immigration, education, and the environment? Have they passed laws that in our judgment help to make our republic more just, prosperous, and decent, or have they opposed them and supported bills that go in the opposite direction? What has been their reaction in the face of political scandals involving their colleagues? It does not take much effort or much time to get this information. And the effort and the time are well spent, if we consider the negative, and even tragic, effects that poor or corrupt political leaders can have on our lives.
Another effective way to assess a politician's quality is to spend a moment examining the people with whom he surrounds himself. Machiavelli offers us this counsel when it comes to the ministers chosen by a prince: "The choice of his ministers is of no slight importance to a prince; they are either good or not, according as the prince himself is sagacious or otherwise; and upon the character of the persons with whom a prince surrounds himself depends the first impression that is formed of his own ability. If his ministers and counselors are competent and faithful, he will be reputed wise, because he had known how to discern their capacity and how to secure their fidelity; but if they prove otherwise, then the opinion formed of the prince will not be favorable, because of his want of judgment in their first selection. If we see that a candidate likes to work with ignorant, arrogant, and pompous collaborators, then we can be sure that he or she is not a person who deserves to be put in office.
What is even worse than being inept at selecting ministers and counselors is being vulnerable to flattery. "I will not leave unnoticed," Machiavelli warns us, "an important subject, and an evil against which princes have much difficulty in defending themselves, if they are not extremely prudent, or have not made good choice of ministers; and this relates to flatterers, who abound in all courts. Men are generally so well pleased with themselves and their own acts, and delude themselves to such a degree, that it is with difficulty they escape from the pest of flatterers." If a politician enjoys adulation, it is certain that he or she will make serious mistakes. Flatterers and adulators always give the kind of advice one likes to hear; they never speak the truth, especially if the truth is unpleasant or calls for difficult or unpopular decisions; they magnify the leader's achievements and belittle the qualities of the opponents. As a result, the political leader is persuaded that no task is too difficult, no achievement is impossible, and this is the surest path to the country's decline. The leader we want must, therefore, be a person who wants counselors who talk straight when they are asked to give their advice.
A good example of Machiavelli's advice put in practice is Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "brain trust." In the spring of 1932, as he was seeking nomination, FDR agreed to the suggestion of putting together a small group of college professors willing to offer some of their time to draft memoranda and discuss policy matters with the president. The "ringmaster of the group, and middleman for their idea," as Arthur Schlesinger described him, was the political economist Raymond Moley of Columbia University. Upon his recommendation, FDR also recruited Rexford G. Tugwell, a specialist on agriculture, and Adolf A. Berle, a prominent expert on corporate finance. As a biographer put it, "Roosevelt did not use the brain trust, or privy council, to provide him with new ideas. He engaged its members to flesh out, articulate, and refine the position he had come to embrace: a readiness to use the power of government to redress the economic ills from which the nation suffered." Wise in choosing his advisors, FDR was even wiser in excluding those who were not up to the task. A distinguished Columbia University faculty member was dismissed because he committed the unpardonable error of submitting the same tariff memorandum to Roosevelt and to his political rival; another because he was unable to provide "the crisp answer FDR wanted, unencumbered by academic hedging." If some of our candidates show comparable skill in selecting their advisors, we can reasonably assume that they have the temper of the good leader.
CHAPTER 3"It is the common good which makes republics great."
That is,
Wise citizens chose leaders who put the common good above personal and particular interests.
Machiavelli offers us this piece of wisdom in one of his most famous pages. When the common good prevails over particular interests, he writes, all countries and provinces make "most rapid progress. Because, from marriage being less restricted in these countries, and more sought after, we find there a greater population; every man being disposed to beget as many children as he thinks he can rear, when he has no anxiety lest they should be deprived of their patrimony, and knows not only that they are born to freedom and not to slavery, but that they may rise by their merit to be the first men of their country. In these republics, accordingly, we see wealth multiply, both that which comes from agriculture and that which comes from manufactures. For all love to gather riches and to add to their possessions when their enjoyment of them is not likely to be disturbed. And hence it happens that the citizens of these republics vie with one another in whatever tends to promote public or private well-being; in both of which, consequently, there is a wonderful growth."
If we only consider our self-interest, on the contrary, and we vote for a candidate who promises us that he will lower our taxes, that we can run our companies with no respect for the workers' rights, that we can build our homes with no concern for the harmony of our cities and the environment, we will end up with poor public schools, inefficient hospitals, bad streets and roads, inadequate police, and so on. Moreover, we will have to deal with politicians and public officers who only care about their personal interest and will therefore be corrupt; workers will be at the mercy of their employers; citizens will have no protection against criminality.
As he often does, Machiavelli invites citizens to use their reason to evaluate political and social matters. But many citizens, when they vote, follow their passions rather than reason. According to our Counselor, this behavior is not always blameworthy. If citizens are guided by good passions, like love of country, compassion, and love of justice, they are likely to vote wisely. To explain this important point, Machiavelli turns to the example of the Roman patrician Manlius Capitolinus, put to death by the people of Rome under the charge of sedition: "when he was cited by the tribunes to appear before them and submit his cause for their decision, [the Roman people] assumed the part of judges and not of defenders, and without scruple or hesitation sentenced him to die. Wherefore, I think, that there is no example in the whole Roman history which serves so well as this to demonstrate the virtues of all ranks in that republic. ... For in all, love of country outweighed every other thought, and all looked less to his past deserts than to the dangers which his present conduct threatened; from which to relieve themselves they put him to death."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from How to Choose a Leader by Maurizio Viroli. Copyright © 2016 Princeton University Press. Excerpted by permission of PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS.
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Table of Contents
Introduction: Why Ask Machiavelli? ix
I Citizens ought to “keep their hands on the republic” and “choose the lesser evil.” 1
II “ Judge by the hands, not by the eyes.” 6
III “ It is the common good which makes republics great.” 12
IV “ Whoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.” 17
V “ How by the delusions of seeming good the people are often misled to desire their own ruin; and how they are frequently influenced by great hopes and brave promises.” 22
VI “ Men almost always follow the beaten track of others, and proceed in their actions by imitation.” 26
VII “ Great men and powerful republics preserve an equal dignity and courage in prosperity and adversity.” 33
VIII “ And although these men were rare and wonderful, they were nevertheless but men, and the opportunities which they had were far less favorable than the present; nor were their undertakings more just or more easy than this; neither was God more a friend of them than of you.” 37
IX “ For it is the duty of any good man to teach others that good which the malignity of the times and of fortune has prevented his doing himself; so that amongst the many capable ones whom he has instructed, someone perhaps, more favored by Heaven, may perform it.” 42
X “ It is very difficult, indeed almost impossible to maintain liberty in a republic that has become corrupt or to establish it there anew.” 46
XI “ Poverty never was allowed to stand in the way of the achievement of any rank or honor and virtue and merit were sought for under whatever roof they dwelt; it was this system that made riches naturally less desirable.” 52
XII “ In well-regulated republics the state ought to be rich and the citizens poor.” 56
XIII “ Prolonged commands brought Rome to servitude.” 63
XIV “ I love my country more than my soul.” 67
XV “ For where the very safety of the country depends upon the resolution to be taken, no considerations of justice or injustice, humanity or cruelty, nor of glory or of shame, should be allowed to prevail. But putting all other considerations aside, the only question should be, ‘what course will save the life and liberty of the country?’” 73
XVI “ The authority of the dictatorship has always proved beneficial to Rome, and never injurious; it is the authority which men usurp, and not that which is given them by the free suffrages of their fellow-citizens, that is dangerous to civil liberty.” 80
XVII “ I say that I have never practiced war as my profession, because my profession is to govern my subjects and to defend them, and, in order to be able to defend them, to love peace and to know how to make war.” 85
XVIII “ An excellent general is usually an orator because, unless he knows how to speak to the whole army, he will have difficulty in doing anything good.” 89
XIX “ A prince becomes esteemed when he shows himself either a true friend or a real enemy.” 97
XX “ To insure a long existence to religious sects or republics, it is necessary frequently to bring them back to their original principles.” 101
Notes 107
Sources of the Quotations 115
Note on the Texts 117
What People are Saying About This
"Niccolò Machiavelli was not only an adviser to princes; he was also, and more importantly, an adviser to citizens. Maurizio Viroli has collected, explained, and elucidated some of the best examples of Machiavellian advice. Be sure to read this book before you go to the polls."—Michael Walzer, Institute for Advanced Study"In this book we see the depth of understanding, the freshness of insight, the vividness of prose, and the convincing power of argument that have made Maurizio Viroli the preeminent critic of Machiavelli of my generation."—Philip Bobbitt, author of The Garments of Court and Palace: Machiavelli and the World That He Made"A pleasure to read, this timely and enlightening book will be of great use to today's voters. Maurizio Viroli, one of the very best interpreters of Machiavelli in the world, presents a wise portrait of Machiavelli's work, showing that he wasn't a ‘teacher of evil' but rather a great political thinker with much to say about the issues facing citizens today."—Peter Bondanella, editor and translator of The Prince