Miannay |1

Christopher Miannay

Abigail Aguilar

PSC 200-1002

28 April 2011

Machiavelli’s Old School America.

Turning on the television, there is an advertisement promoting the means of democracy.

Kids are deciding on what they want to play and the end result was football. At the end of the

commercial every child was smiling and laughing, they all looked like they were happy. I turn it

up a channel; the news coverage is on the royal wedding embracing the Royal family. Everyone

lined the street as if the royal chariot is a parade rejoicing on majesty. After watching television,

I took a walk to the park with my little baby pit bull and watch these parents supervise their

children. The parents worked as a small team ensuring their children stayed safe; the children

didn’t mind it a bit because they just wanted to have fun. At that point I realized that every day I

encounter a different form of government, whether walking through a park or watching

television at home. Unfortunately I am not the first to realize this, but Niccolo Machiavelli

enhanced an optimal combination of government which is a republic through the hindsight of

history.

Niccolo Machiavelli believes that the best form of government has to be a republican

regime. A republican regime is a system of checks and balance that allows the One, the Few, and

the Many too rule the government at the same time. “A government would be stronger and more

stable, for if in one and the same state there was principality, aristocracy and democracy each

would keep watch over the other” (275). What Machiavelli means by a principality is that there
 Miannay |2

has to be someone in charge that will organize the republic. Not just anyone can be the prudent

organizer, “the prudent organizer of a state whose intention it is to govern not in his own

interests but for the common good, and not in the interests of his successors but for the sake of

that fatherland which is common to all”(276). This organizer must have the interests of everyone

in the state when passing laws. Aristocracy comes into play when the organizer needs some help

in deciding what is best for the state. The Aristocracy comes together and decides what needs to

be done for the state to maintain order and endorse the common good. These advisors then

discuss to the organizer of their propositions and granted the organizer understands the

proposition and enforces it across the state. The final piece that makes the republic ideal is

putting in a Democracy. This gives the populace power and say in the passing of laws. If the

populous does not agree with the organizer or the advisors they make sure the corrupt laws are

not put in place, if there is a refusal they can remove them from their position for the lack of

interest in the common good. Understanding the roles of the three governments shows a system

of checks and balances which makes sure that the government is strong and stable and will not

abide to any corruption. “The blending of these estates made a perfect commonwealth; and since

it was friction between the plebs and the senate that brought this perfection about” (276).

Others may argue that a republic is not the best form of government. The first major point

would be the downfall of the Roman Empire. “For the twenty-six emperors from Cesar to

Maximinus, sixteen were assassinated and only 10 died a natural death” (278). This illustrates

that the government goes against what Machiavelli’s critically focused on with stability. The

Second main point is the very idea that makes a republic good is what destroyed it in the end.

“The blending of these estates made a perfect commonwealth; and since it was friction between

the plebs and the senate that brought this perfection about” (276). The friction between the
 Miannay |3

groups was not only vertical but in a horizontal manner as well. There were so much civil

dispute that the Empire split into an East and West. The third point is there is too much

centralized power within the Caesars hands. The republic can become corrupted easily. “The

organizer of a state ought further to have sufficient prudence and virtue not to bequeath the

authority he has assumed to any other person, for, seeing that men are more prone to evil than to

good, his successor might well make ambitious use of that which he had used virtuously” (276).

If one of the Senate members persuades Caesar too create laws that will limit the public it might

as well be considered a tyranny because they are acting on their own self-interests. A good

example would be the limitation of speech within the Roman Empire. There is no record of bad

language towards Catiline or Brutus within the Roman Empire. Brutus had a bad reputation

according to a different empire. (278). A lack of liberty is not the ideal state any regime should

bestow upon its people.

Niccolo Machiavelli’s republic is the greatest form of society considering it is one of the

longest running governments known to man-kind. The Roman Empire did not go through any

regime change after the establishment of a populous. It stayed in control by three sections of

governments until the split of the Empire. The Split of the Empires happened overtime and it was

over the corruption and exploitation occurring within the society. The problem with the Roman

Empire is that they did not maintain themselves which would clean the corruption within. It is

the duty of the state to uphold justice and reform its constitution as well. “The way of renovating

them, as has been said, is to reduce them to their starting points. For at the start religious

institutions, republics and kingdoms have in all cases some good in them, to which their early

reputation and progress is due. But since in process of time this goodness is corrupted, such a

body must of necessity die unless something happens which brings it up to mark” (279). Finally,
 Miannay |4

the republic gives you liberty to an extent as long as there is no violation to another person’s

safety. “Security for man is impossible unless it be conjoined with power” (272). The point of

the governing nation is too protect its people, it provides protection and justice.

Nation building is a hard process that could lead to complete ruin. With cautionary

measures to ensure the protection of liberty, and the understanding of human’s desire for power,

creating a system of checks and balances is accentual. Niccolo Machiavelli certainly presents a

republic that upholds the standards of checks and balances as long as it is maintained will with

the proper virtues.