Niccolo's Machiavelli's Influence
Niccolo Machiavelli was a renowned writer who became famous for writing about how various world leaders should be able to thrive in the world as it is, not as it is intended to be. He wrote the famous book "The Prince," which examined how different rulers utilize various strategies to gain power at any particular moment. These leaders are capable of doing anything to get power, even if it involves committing the most heinous breaches imaginable. In summary, the book explains how many leaders, who win and still want to retain the power, act upon their enemies using force so that they stumble and fail to defeat them (Machiavelli & Goodwin, 2003).
Relevance of Machiavelli's Philosophy Today
Machiavelli's political philosophy is much more relevant today than even during his time. This is because of the increased cases of state violence which has negative effects on the people. Due to this state of violence, many organizations such as the United Nations and the International Court of Justice have being formed by the international community to look into the some of the cases of State Violence. Some of the leaders who have shown support to Machiavelli's ideas are the Barack Obama, this is for example evident where he initiated a health care plan that was aimed to cover all American citizens. This showed a lot of generosity about him. On the other hand, through this generosity, he broke one of his promises of where families receiving less than a total of 250000 dollars would not get any rise in tax. This raise in tax at the expense of maintaining a generous reputation makes him support Machiavelli's ideologies (Leeden, 2013).
Leaders Demonstrating Machiavellian Values
In addition, George Bush also demonstrated some Machiavelli's values since around the year 1976 he was charged of drunk driving. However during the 2000 elections, he kept his faith at heart as Machiavelli views and this gave the advantage since the gained the support of the religious groups in America. From then, George always tried to have a positive attitude towards the religious groups (Paret et al, 1986).
Russian president, Vladimir Putin is also one of the leaders whose ideas seem to be parallel with those of Machiavelli. This is after he attempted to control the civil war in Syria. He did this requesting the Americans led by Barack Obama to be able to separate morality from international relations. This made him become more popular again among the people since he was able to come up with a brilliant idea than Barack Obama. In spite of having very view people to believe in him, he stood firm and came up with an idea that increased his popularity among the people. This shows that a leader can rule by the few and become victorious at the end (Machiavelli & Goodwin, 2003).
Application of Machiavelli's Cycle of History
Both Barack Obama and George Bush applied the Machiavelli's cycle of history since they applied rule by the many. This is because their actions were aimed at obtaining the favor of most of the American citizens. As a result, these leaders were able to make the Americans believe that they were capable of taking the country to great heights. Rule by the many increases the chances of a leader to win the hearts of the people. These two great leaders supported Machiavelli's cycle of history (Leeden, 2013).
References
Ledeen, M. (2013). Machiavelli on modern leadership : why machiavelli’s iron rules are as timely and important today as five centuries ago. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Machiavelli, N. & Goodwin, R. (2003). The prince. Boston: Dante University Press.
Paret, P., Craig, G. & Gilbert, F. (1986). Makers of modern strategy : from Machiavelli to the nuclear age. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press.
