1. Machiavelli: Agency and the Power or Authority to Rule
Dr. Morse
Fall 2015

2. Blogging Schedule
Blog 5: Select one of the below prompts to develop your final blog. Be sure to apply specific materials from the course. Blog 5 due Sunday, Week 9 and Final and Revised Blog due Monday, Week 10 (turn all final blog posts in to turnitin.com by 11:59 p.m.)
To what extent does or should the U.S. President have the power to affect major U.S. policies?
In what specific ways do the writings of Machiavelli or Sun Tzu still apply in today’s society? (in business, in politics, in sports, etc.)
Which of the following rules or governs in a more Machiavellian fashion? (Putin, Obama, Bashar al-Assad, other)

3. Blog Peer Review
You will be assigned two names from class and will complete a blog content and Web site aesthetics review for Monday. This would take roughly the same amount of time as attending class, so we will be doing this instead of meeting on Wednesday next week.

4. Influence / Reception of Machiavelli’s Work
M’s Predecessors: Political Theorists prior to Machiavelli tended to take a moralistic or idealistic rather than realistic or “results-oriented” approach
Note about Genre: His approach can be read as running counter to the “mirror of princes” treatises of the time that argued one should govern as merciful and generous and be just to win the love/affection of the people.
Not focused on moral goodness or truth in discussions about how leaders most effectively govern
He argues that good government requires deception and cruelty
His strategies for ruthlessness have material benefits…profit
Politics can be defined and understood in terms of supremacy of coercive power – a ruler cannot live and survive by his rights alone
Machiavelli wrote this text in a violent and turbulent time in Italy.
There are moments in the text that convey the importance of flexibility and adaptability necessary to survive and flourish in turbulent political times
At the same time his work is intended to serve as a guidebook for future rulers as well. Until recent years reception of his text saw Machiavelli as evil. Today, his work is still applied in business and economic practices.
NOTE: You have to decide whether these arguments are meant to be taken literally or satirically or critically, etc.
“Mirror of Princes”
Written in the Middle Ages and Renaissance
Assertion that there is a connection between rightful or legitimate political power and moral goodness
These texts counseled leaders that if they wanted a long and peaceful rule, one with the possibility of continued rule, that they had to rule as morally good and virtuous
Machiavelli criticizes this position
There is no moral basis on which to judge legitimate over illegitimate uses of power or to determine who has the right to command – in other words, there is no direct correlation between legitimate rights to rule and the possession of power
He argues that moral goodness, being virtuous and doing good do not ensure power or legitimize authority to rule
The only real concern for a rule is to acquire and maintain power through whatever means necessary
“There cannot be good laws without good arms” - Legitimacy of law and authority or power to rule relies on coercion or force
In a state of nature people obey because they have to – they fear the consequences of not obeying.

5. Influence / Reception of Machiavelli’s Work
“Mirror of Princes”
Written in the Middle Ages and Renaissance
Assertion that there is a connection between rightful or legitimate political power and moral goodness
These texts counseled leaders that if they wanted a long and peaceful rule, one with the possibility of continued rule, that they had to rule as morally good and virtuous
Machiavelli criticizes this position
There is no moral basis on which to judge legitimate over illegitimate uses of power or to determine who has the right to command – in other words, there is no direct correlation between legitimate rights to rule and the possession of power
He argues that moral goodness, being virtuous and doing good do not ensure power or legitimize authority to rule
The only real concern for a rule is to acquire and maintain power through whatever means necessary
“There cannot be good laws without good arms” - Legitimacy of law and authority or power to rule relies on coercion or force
In a state of nature people obey because they have to – they fear the consequences of not obeying.

6. Influence / Reception of M’s Work
Machiavelli wrote another text Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy, which complements The Prince
His other political writings favor Republics and representative governments over monarchical rule
Our introduction points out that some scholars have argued that The Prince is a satirical work
What argument do these covers make?

7. Modern Applications

8. Essay 3 (adapting from the prompt)
Conceptual analysis and Finding Meaning in The Prince:
These concepts (power/virtue/fortune) represent specific characteristics and actions required of “the Prince” or political sovereign to acquire and to maintain power over a state or “dominion”
The Examples M offers are hypothetical, historical and contemporary (for M) examples of rulers who exemplify or fail to exemplify these characteristics.
However, through this method – conceptual analysis – your goal will be to explain whether M arrives at a more fully realized and “adequate” definition - one that characterizes the “essence” of that concept, or whether he equivocates/contradicts and “So What”?

9. Conceptual Steps in Reading/Drafting Essay 3
Step One: Outline Concept and Purpose in First Pass
Describe how Machiavelli initially defines and characterizes the Concept (explicitly and implicitly and also according to the time period)
Note: You may look to any part of the text to support this initial definition
Note: Although you will focus attention on one specific concept, you necessarily must account for the relationship between multiple concepts working together with your assigned concept (power/virtue/fortune)
Identify what conditions reinforce basic definition. What counterexamples and objections force you to alter this definition. Click Here
Express what M’s preliminary sense of the concept AND its purpose are
Assert what arguments about attaining/maintaining power lead M to define the concept in this way (“So What” – was he a cynical advocate or a republican critic?)

10. Conceptual Steps in Reading and Drafting Essay 3
Step Two: Testing That Definition Against Examples
Re-read the Passage (Returning to the Text)
Identify and Characterize what kind of example is provided in the passage
An analogy/metaphor/application to example – political, biblical, historical ruler, contemporary ruler, etc.?
How does the additional context provided by the example shape or alter or affect the meaning of the preliminary concept?
Explain how the example relates to components of the preliminary definition from part one? (Note: Example may contain multiple parts)
Examine how the example forces the reader to reconsider some aspect
Examine which parts of the example seem to reinforce, extend, revise, confirm, or challenge the initial definition and how? To what end?

11. Conceptual Steps in Reading and Drafting Essay 3
Step Three: Characterizing the “Essence” of the Concept (Thesis)
By now you will have a much better grasp of Machiavelli’s concept and its purpose, so RETURN to the TEXT and RE-READ
Identify the extent to which the example alters the initial definition, and then use your deeper understanding of the text to explain
In doing this explain what this newly refined or contextualized definition of the concept reveals about Machiavelli’s text about the specific characteristics and actions required of a political sovereign to attain and retain power.
In other words, how does your conceptual analysis lead you to the “essence” of that concept and “so what” (was he a cynical advocate or a republican critic?)?

12. Your Passage Choices…
Virtue and/or Fortune (60 “Whence” – 62 “ regards present things”)
Enemy (62 “But as regards” – bottom 64)
Cruelty (65 “Thus whoever considers” – 68 “no gratitude from it whatsoever”)
Virtue and Fortune: (94-95 “Thus, since it is necessary … into evil when he needs to”)
Due Monday: Complete, Academic and Logically Coherent Draft of first 2 conceptual steps and a preliminary thesis that serves as basis of Step 3 (50 pts WP)

13. Machiavelli’s Ethos
Let’s take a look at the “Dedication” on pp …
How does the dedication set up M’s “ethos”?
To whom is it written? Is it also written for a different audience?
What is the purpose of the dedication?
What language or ideas in the letter caught your attention? How?

14. Group Lecture Quiz – 10 minutes
What are the differences between the notion of “Reason of State” vs “Realpolitik”? What examples were discussed in lecture?
Who was Cesare Borgia, and why is it interesting or odd that Machiavelli uses him as one of his examples?
What does a hereditary principality refer to, and why does Machiavelli argue that this ruler might have an easier time governing than a new ruler?
How can you further refine your understanding of “virtue” and “fortune” following today’s lecture?

15. Aristotelian “Shooting for the Mean”
“…the prince must make himself feared in such a way that, although he does not acquire love, he avoids hatred. For being feared and being not hated may exist very well together” (92).
What is the claim that the above seeks to qualify?
Can one be both feared and loved?
According to lecture, in what ways does a leader try to negotiate between extremes and why?

16. Group 2: Enemy (45 last par.-47 …“no longer a remedy”)
How does M define/characterize the below concepts (implicitly and/or explicitly)?
What role do human agency or the nature of power or authority play in M’s characterization or application of the below concepts?
Is there a lesson about coming to power or staying in power? Or is M being critical/ironic?
Group 1: Prudence (47-48)
Group 2: Enemy (45 last par.-47 …“no longer a remedy”)
Group 3: Virtue (54 bottom – 57 bottom)
Group 4: Cruelty (61-top 62)
Group 5: Contemptibility (bottom 84-top 86)