Walzer's Arguments In The Prince

Machiavelli’s arguments in his work The Prince, surrounding ruling and the concept of dirty hands, were utilised in Michael Walzer’s political piece titled, Political Action: The Problem of Dirty Hands. Walzer uses Machiavelli’s commentary to advance many of his central points. Throughout his comprehensive article, Walzer effectively utilizes Machiavelli’s arguments that consistently stays true those in The Prince and provides a persuasive reading. In order to understand Walzer’s commentary, it is first important to have an understanding of Machiavelli’s The Prince. As a whole, the piece discusses how to gain control of, and maintain principalities. The Prince consists of 26 chapters that deal with different aspects of running a republic. In order to analyze Walzer’s work, chapters 15-18 of the book are necessary to understand his arguments. In chapter 15, Machiavelli begins discussing the correct behavior of a

In his piece, Walzer puts forth some new, original arguments, but his commentary is securely anchored in the teachings of Machiavelli. Walzer’s piece is ultimately concerned with rulers, our modern politicians, and how their actions, the good and mostly bad, affect their amount of power and their level of success. In The Prince Machiavelli meticulously outlines not only how to be a successful leader, but how to gain control of a nation. While Walzer’s piece centers more around the concept of dirty hands and thus in Machiavelli’s eyes, how to rule, this does not mean his work does not stay true to The Prince. He simply chose the aspects of Machiavelli’s work that were pertinent to his argument. The concepts that Walzer chose to expand upon, learning how to be bad, making immoral decisions, and possessing unsavory characteristics, were all true Machiavellian concepts originating in The