Violence In Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince

Role of Violence
While some leaders believe in the rule of law and protection of lives and property, others perceive effective leadership as a combination of controlled violence, cruelty, and extrajudicial killings. Some political philosophers, such as Niccolo Machiavelli, believe in necessary brutality and the capacity of a ruler to act in an entirely self-serving way. Throughout “The Prince,” for example, Machiavelli makes numerous claims about perfect governance that strike the ruler as unnecessarily cruel or harsh. Other scholars, such as Las Casas believe that effective leadership refrains from any form of violence or intimidation. This paper will outline the role of violence within the political arena with reference to the views of Machiavelli

He designed his own hypothesis of effective leadership and based his ideal leader on Borgia’s life. Machiavelli famously claimed that excellent leaders have to learn to be tough; they must be ready to set aside ethical or moral concerns of justice, kindness, and honesty in order to guarantee the stability of their regime. The assertion was outrageous to contemporaries, who upheld medieval concepts about divine power, in which a supreme being appointed the ruler for the sole purpose of serving people and upholding justice and law. In contrast, Machiavelli asserted that the most prosperous leaders were not those adhered to the dictates of justice, conscience or law, but those prepared to do whatever it take to preserve their own power. Such leaders, according to him, end up preserving the order of their

Las Casas asserted that its extremely sad that some people still find the ideas of political dominance acceptable. He claimed that different philosophers and political leaders might rationalize the justification in different ways but the greed motive is eminent. Violence, according to Las Casas is unacceptable in all the leadership levels including family setting, work environment, religious practice and most importantly in the political arena. Abuse of power, he insisted, whether it is a matter of domestic, racial, sexual, or religious basis is horrifying to the victims. Unlike Machiavelli, Las Casas believed political leadership is about honesty, justice, fairness, and undisputed respect of humanity. Las Casas insisted that a ruler who kills his own people or even outsiders, for whatever reason, is cruel, inhuman and does not deserve to be a