{"id":7,"date":"2012-12-22T12:07:06","date_gmt":"2012-12-22T17:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/machiavelli\/?page_id=7"},"modified":"2012-12-31T15:17:34","modified_gmt":"2012-12-31T20:17:34","slug":"introduction","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/machiavelli\/addenda\/introduction\/","title":{"rendered":"Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is a sixteenth-century political theorist<\/strong> still relevant to today\u2019s political landscape, especially to modern municipal politics? I believe he is very<\/em> relevant, although his words need to be recast into modern metaphors and language to appreciate them fully. Yet simply substituting terms like mayor, city manager or CAO, and staff where Machiavelli writes \u201cprince,\u201d \u201cnoble,\u201d or \u201cbaron\u201d can produce surprisingly modern-sounding maxims.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because The Prince<\/em> was intended as a practical guidebook for a city ruler. It\u2019s all about leadership at the local level.<\/p>\n

Does he deserve the defamation he has earned over the centuries? I don\u2019t think so. In fact, I believe The Prince<\/em> should be given out to every<\/em> newly elected councillor and mayor as a training manual for local politics. Those who want to be leaders will read it, the rest will be led.<\/p>\n

The Prince<\/em> contains hands-on advice on leadership, governing, assistants, security, spending and other areas today\u2019s municipal politicians and city managers will recognize as part of their daily lives. Machiavelli addressed a range of civic problems we recognize and manage today.<\/p>\n

Because he was a realist, as Francis Bacon called him, rather than an idealist, his advice today may seem too cynical and self-serving, but that\u2019s just the flavour of the times.<\/p>\n

Underneath our sanctimonious masque of political correctness, we recognize his truths.
\nThat correctness may also prevent us from having the spine for what Machiavelli says we need to do to survive in office. It\u2019s not always nice, or pretty, but it\u2019s usually necessary. Leaders need to do what has to be done, and have no moral qualms about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people are hamstrung by things like affection
\nfor fellow employees, honesty, desire to appear to
\nbe a \u2018nice person,\u2019 and other crippling limitations
\nnot suffered by the truly powerful and successful.
\nThis book will attempt to eradicate those impulses in you\u2026\u201d
\nStanley Bing, Introduction to: What Would Machiavelli Do?<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Machiavelli isn\u2019t reserved for the grandiose sweep of national and international politics: he wrote about the prime concerns of every municipal politician today: getting power, managing that power, and staying in office: the stuff of realpolitik. We all appreciate it, but may not always grasp its finer nuances. Machiavelli lays it out for us; he doesn\u2019t mince words. No one else will give you this advice. You certainly won\u2019t get it in your council orientation sessions.<\/p>\n

Every great leader, every great politician should be a student of Machiavelli. If you don\u2019t heed his advice, your opponents will, so you should know what he says so you can be prepared for what they do. It\u2019s not all about power or political gamesmanship; it\u2019s also about bureaucracy, statecraft and the machinery of governance.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s about winning. The means you used to accomplish things during your time in office will be judged by the level of your success.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt pains me much when I hear that out of conscience many of you repent the deeds that have been done and that
\nyou wish to abstain from new deeds\u2026 if this is true,
\nyou are not the men I believed you to be, for neither conscience nor infamy should dismay you, because those who win, in whatever mode they win, never receive shame from it\u2026 We have no business to think about conscience\u2026\u201d
\nSpeech quoted in the Florentine Histories: III: 3<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A lot has been written about Machiavelli, mostly by scholars and academics. Dense tomes analyze his every nuance and saying. Some of it, frankly, is tired blather akin to counting angels dancing on pinheads. It wasn\u2019t written by politicians, the people for whom Machiavelli intended his works. Politicians who read Machiavelli see his books in a different light.<\/p>\n

In this book, I put Machiavelli\u2019s most famous \u2013 and most infamous \u2013 work, The Prince<\/em>, in a modern, municipal perspective, not simply by rewriting his words (I do a little of that, to modernize them), but also by explaining his ideas through the lens of my own experience in municipal politics and in the media.<\/p>\n

I also add quotes from others of Machiavelli\u2019s works, as well as from other authors. The latter are meant to highlight the reader\u2019s understanding that Machiavelli is not alone, nor the first or the last, in his advice or assessments about government and political leaders.<\/p>\n

My target readership is the mayor or municipal councillor who wants to be a leader at the table, and to do that you need to know how to survive and succeed in politics. It\u2019s also for any incumbent who wants to be re-elected to office: you need skill and talent and cunning to win re-election, not just luck or what you think is a good platform (the electorate may not agree or even care).<\/p>\n

New politicians, especially, should pay heed to Machiavelli\u2019s words, because newcomers need him more than incumbents. To simplify things, I refer to mayors and councillors, but these can also be read as warden and aldermen, or reeve and deputy reeve, respectively.<\/p>\n

Unless otherwise noted, all quotations from\u00a0The Prince<\/em>\u00a0(shown in bold) are from the W. K. Marriott translation, available in the public domain. I have often altered the wording and grammar of quotes for greater clarity (e.g. I changed \u201cliberality\u201d to \u201cgenerosity\u201d).<\/p>\n

Machiavelli\u2019s original work always speaks of the prince \u2013 the ruler \u2013 as masculine. While that befits the patriarchal nature of his times, I try to be more inclusive, but have not changed the quotations from his book for the sake of political correctness.<\/p>\n

I use Machiavelli\u2019s chapter order in\u00a0The Prince<\/em>\u00a0as my own framework, but I have dropped most of the examples and historical anecdotes in his original. However, I included two lengthy anecdotes, one each in Chapters 7 and 8, because they are, I felt, necessary to explain his reasoning. I also changed the chapter titles, as well, to suit my theme.<\/p>\n

I include quotes from\u00a0The Discourses, Florentine Histories<\/em>, and from works by other authors. See the\u00a0bibliography<\/a>\u00a0for details\u00a0and links to online resources.<\/p>\n

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<\/em>
\nPrevious Chapter<\/a> – Next Chapter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is a sixteenth-century political theorist still relevant to today\u2019s political landscape, especially to modern municipal politics? I believe he is very relevant, although his words need to be recast into modern metaphors and language to appreciate them fully. Yet simply substituting terms like mayor, city manager or CAO, and staff where Machiavelli writes \u201cprince,\u201d \u201cnoble,\u201d … Continue reading “Introduction”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":175,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":18,"url":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/machiavelli\/addenda\/about-the-prince\/","url_meta":{"origin":7,"position":0},"title":"About The Prince","author":"Ian Chadwick","date":"December 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Il Principe, or The Prince, is a short book of 26 chapters, and roughly 30,000 words. Most modern editions are fewer than 100 pages, including an introduction and perhaps a glossary. It\u2019s elegantly written, although the author used run-on sentences a lot. Newer editions break up those long pieces into\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92,"url":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/machiavelli\/addenda\/bibliography-sources\/","url_meta":{"origin":7,"position":1},"title":"Bibliography & Sources","author":"Ian Chadwick","date":"December 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Unless otherwise noted, all quotations from The Prince used in this book are from the W. K. Marriott translation, available in the public domain. Selections from The Prince are not always used verbatim. Wording and grammar from public domain quotes are often modified for clarity or modernity. In particular I\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/machiavelli\/addenda\/bibliography-sources\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":155,"url":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/machiavelli\/chapters-8-14\/chapter-14-learn-the-rules-of-war\/","url_meta":{"origin":7,"position":2},"title":"Chapter 14: Learn the Rules of War","author":"Ian Chadwick","date":"December 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Carl von Clausewitz, the famous military theorist, said, \u201cWar is the continuation of politics by other means.\u201d He meant military means. Conversely, politics is the art of war cloaked in civility and procedure. Alasdair MacIntyre wrote in his book, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory (University of Notre Dame\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":834,"url":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/machiavelli\/miscellanea\/demonizing-machiavelli\/","url_meta":{"origin":7,"position":3},"title":"Demonizing Machiavelli","author":"Ian Chadwick","date":"January 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Criticism of Machiavelli by the church started almost as soon as\u00a0The Prince was published. One of the earliest English attacks against Machiavelli came from Cardinal Reginald Pole, who wrote an \u201capology\u201d to Charles V in 1539. He attacks\u00a0The Prince and Machiavelli himself at length, saying the book had been written\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/machiavelli\/miscellanea\/demonizing-machiavelli\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":532,"url":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/machiavelli\/addenda\/translating-machiavelli\/","url_meta":{"origin":7,"position":4},"title":"Translating Machiavelli","author":"Ian Chadwick","date":"December 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I admit up front that my ability to read and speak Italian is limited to ordering some restaurant food. However, I have studied English and its etymology, some French, Spanish, and Hebrew, small Latin and less Greek (to paraphrase Johnson), so I can fumble my way through some Italian phrases\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/machiavelli\/addenda\/translating-machiavelli\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":85,"url":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/machiavelli\/addenda\/machiavellian-misquotes\/","url_meta":{"origin":7,"position":5},"title":"Machiavellian Misquotes","author":"Ian Chadwick","date":"December 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Machiavelli today is commonly known by two things. One is the statement that, \u2018the end justifies the means.\u2019 The other is by the adjective \u2018Machiavellian,\u2019 meaning something evil, underhanded, treacherous, cunning or sneaky in politics. Neither is accurate. Many people recognize that he wrote The Prince (Il Principe), but few\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/machiavelli\/addenda\/machiavellian-misquotes\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/machiavelli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/machiavelli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/machiavelli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/machiavelli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/machiavelli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/machiavelli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":657,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/machiavelli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7\/revisions\/657"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/machiavelli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/machiavelli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}