What’s Wrong With Princely Rule?

The Italian Renaissance of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries saw the rebirth of many of the ideals of classical Greece and Rome, including the ideal of self-government. Among those who celebrated the rebirth of “republican” government was Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527). Machiavelli is best known as the author of The Prince, a short book in which he apparently advocates rule by a single person who should not hesitate to use cruelty and deceit to stay in power. In his longer book, The Discourses, however, he takes a very different position. In the following excerpt from The Discourses, Machiavelli criticizes the claim that the people, acting collectively, are less wise than a single king or prince.