Is it better to be feared than loved?

In today’s contemporary world, it may be observed that some people follow

laws, because they believe that following laws is the most important indicator of

civilization, of living in peace, of earning more in every aspect technical and

financial subjects. On the other hand, many other people follow laws because

they fear the punishment of breaking laws. However, when the importance of

these two groups of people’s behavior investigated, it can be observed that,

latter group is more assuring, for instance: international interpreters look for

countries in which all law is in force they want their investments and their life

be under the guarantee of the states. When the term ‘law’ is replaced with “a

prince” or “a prince order”, Machiavelli’s thesis that “forced to make a choice; it

is better to be feared than loved” can be obtained. Although his thesis is right

to a great extent, it is required to modify his reason in believing it.

Machiavelli claims that “men are ungrateful, fickle, liars and deceivers …” (Part

XVII). First of all, this overgeneralization violates the main principle of justice,

“everyone is innocent until he/she is proved to be guilty”. However, it is not

true to approve his argument and to ignore virtues of human; by consequences

his argument is partially true. He uses this claim in order to prove the

statement “men worry less about doing an injury to one ho makes himself

loved than one who makes himself feared” (…), however, all people all not liar

or deceiver, they behave just like this because of following someone’s order

who you loved is a kind of luxury, where following the another who you feared
from him is necessity. For example, during a war, motivation of ‘yenilen tarafın

askerleri’ is probably the fear of their commander which keep them on the war

place. However, at the peace time people obey both of the princes’ orders, the

loved one and feared one.

Both methods –to be feared and to be loved- have some handicaps. As stated

above, to be loved might be useless during the difficult situations such as wars;

however, the other would be dangerous if the prince lose his power to make the

people feared. Machiavelli advises to avoid being hatred by being feared is

caused from the same logic. If people hate you, than they will rebel at your

powerless times. However if they do not hate you they will not rebel but they

will not obey your rules and the enemies will easily beat you.

As a conclusion, although Machiavelli’s arguments includes something

controversial to the virtue of humanity, his thesis “… it is better to be feared

than loved” (..) is valid for many works including some political leaders, soldiers,

businessmen if they have sufficient power and keep it consistently. Today’s

superpower the USA still applies the death penalty as a deterrent, which is

believed to discourage people from perpetrating capital crimes.