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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Thomas Hauer
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5313/2017.06.002
The goal of each policy should be to maintain the country’s stability. This proposition becomes a keynote of the political concept of the state. Machiavelli’s work The Prince is not just a treatise on politics, but a text aiming to subvert the traditional concept of political philosophy. Machiavelli devoted two main theses to political art. The first one emphasizes that the ruler must work on the assumption that people are bad. Man is inherently evil. Whoever gives the republic its constitution and the law must consider all people evil in advance, and they must also reckon with the fact that the people will show their perverse nature whenever they get the chance. Only this assumption allows the ruler to handle his subjects appropriately; consequently, they are willing to support their leader and his policy. The second thesis claims that the ruler prowess lies in virtue, which is a prerequisite for the ruler’s political career. Machiavelli’s work is a great contribution to the theory of politics, elites, and power. The text analyses some concepts of this political theory.
political philosophy, power, techniques of power, virtue, human ambivalence