RENAISSANCE,HUMANISTS AND REFORMATION:

Renaissance is a French word meaning “rebirth.” It refers to a period in European

civilization that was marked by a revival of Classical learning and wisdom. It
witnessed the discovery and exploration of new continents, the
substitution of the Copernican for the Ptolemaic system of astronomy,
the decline of the feudal system and the growth of commerce, and the
invention or application of such potentially powerful innovations as
paper, printing, the mariner’s compass, and gunpowder. While the
spirit of the Renaissance ultimately took many forms, it was expressed
earliest by the intellectual movement called humanism. Humanism
was initiated by secular men of letters rather than by the scholar-
clerics who had dominated medieval intellectual life and had
developed the Scholastic philosophy. Humanism began and achieved
fruition first in Italy.
Niccolo Machiavelli invaded Italy. Various city-states found it difficult to
counter the invasion and keep their autonomy. Machiavelli saw Italy being
dominated by outsiders and his own city-state in jeopardy. Niccolo Machiavelli is
one of the most significant political thinkers of Renaissance. He was interested in
the study of the modern state. Machiavelli’s primary insight, was to realize that
the new Renaissance state existed as a thing-in-itself, sovereign and powerful, not
beholden to any other entity, secular or spiritual. He rejected the restrictions of
honor and religion. Rulers should only be concerned with power and should only
be bound by rules that make him/her successful. Rulers must be skilled in the art
of war. According to him, Men are evil. It is better to be stingy then liberal. It is
better to be feared then loved. Keep your word only when it is too your
advantage. He is also known for the saying “the end justifies the means”.
POWER AS THE PRINCE:
The advice Machiavelli gives to The Prince is:

 "Lie if it is convenient."
 "Be nice to the right people, when it works in your favor."
 "Do bad things as long as they help you keep and obtain power."
 "Crush your enemies absolutely, so they cannot come back to oppose you."
 "If you can't be loved, be feared instead."
And that is what makes people uncomfortable. The schism between what we believe is right and just,
and how Machiavelli describes how to acquire and keep power, which sometimes isn't so right or just.

Machiavelli isn't describing a beautiful meadow filled with fairies and unicorns.

Machiavelli is describing the real world and real people. A world that is filled with cheats, and
murderers, and thieves.

A world in which sometimes if you wish to obtain power, you will have to lie, cheat, steal, and do
everything you can to get to the top.

THE PRINCE AS A STATECRAFT:

In The Prince of Machiavelli, Nicolo Di Machiavelli perfectly explains how a ruler should act towards his
people and the state. He also gives various advices to the prince about statecraft for example,
1.End justifies the Means.
2.State is sovereign, autonomus and non-religious.
3.A prince must combine the qualities of a lion and a fox.
4.Use a double standard of morality.
5. Favour despotic rule.
6. Maintain strong army.
7.Human nature is low and ungrateful, so Prince must consider this nature of man.
8.He should win the popularity of his people must not touch the property of the people.
9. A prince must have council of wise men and not of flatterers.
10. Separate politics from religion.
11. Remain free from emotions.
For Machiavelli, it's extremely important that a leader possesses strength. The only way a
political leader will be able to possess strength is to control and manipulate the masses. Under
the manipulation of masses, the political leader has power to control emotions of the people. We
should never forget that once a human being is guided by his emotions, he does act illogically.
Emotions make us react without the process of reasoning because we are only guided about that
specific moment once we are in that pain and do not see the big picture. For a political leader to
be able to control people's emotions, it is a huge plus in his quest for power. But not necessarily
a good thing. In politics, propaganda is an inevitable tool that a strong political leader needs in
order to insure and establish his power. In order for a political leader to master people's
emotions, he must not show emotions unless he is delivering a speech in which he puts passion,
hope, and aggressiveness. The crowd does like strong leaders, leaders who aren't afraid to
attack, who aren't afraid to sacrifice their life for the common good such Martin Luther King or
Nelson Mandela. Machiavelli personally believed that it was necessary that a state possesses a
single ruler whom will dictate and establish the law in order to avoid confusion, rebellion, coup
d'etat and a slow advancement of the national interest.
Glory is an important thing into politics. Glory and honor are what
classified leaders. In politics, glory and honor usually refer to the audacity a
political leader is about take to get the job done. If he/she wins, he/she will be a
heroe. The crowd loves pragmatic leaders. A leader whom is not afraid to take
decisions that will have major effects and major changes on the political process of
a nation, of a country. In Machiavelli's eyes, the concept of Glory and Honor are
related to war. For Machiavelli, a political leader demonstrates his true strength and sense of
glory and honor once this latter his ready to confront or use coercion.
Nicollo di Machiavelli always advocated for a political leader to be
ruthless. According to Machiavelli, Ruthlessness is the best way to have control
over individuals. If a political leader is ruthless toward the masses and does not
hesitate using coercion toward these masses, it is logic that these masses will be
very obedient to their ruler. In this way, the masses do not complain and the ruler
could definitely exercise his power over the people. Nevertheless, Machiavelli did
not say that a political leader should be always ruthless. Machiavelli exactly
emphasized on the word "necessary" to explain his concept of ruthlessness. A political
leader should not be systematically ruthless unless it's necessary. Which means that if the
people rebel too much in the way that it becomes difficult to reinstate between the ruler and the
ruled, therefore, brutality is necessary for the sake of keeping the masses in order. A political
leader should also be clement if there is no need to be brutal. The main point of being a political
leader according to Machiavelli is that he/she should be more feared than loved because if a
political Leader is too loved by his people, he will slacken on major decisions. A political leader
should know when to apply his diplomatic ability (clemency) to solve a problem and when to use
coercion (ruthlessness including brutality and violence) to remain and maintain Order
unshakable.
CRITICISM OF MACHIAVELLI:
The book Machiavelli wrote *The prince * got criticized as an evil thought and theory. All the
ideas he described are pragmatic and based on this experience. Firstly, the many liberalists
would argue that why would anyone chose to be feared over love. However, Machiavelli favor to
be feared over love. Secondly, he thinks power is everything the prince need to have and to
obtain it he need to use any kind of evil means. The liberalist thinks the world is composed full
of honest people, people in contrast Machiavelli think the world is full of bad people so we need
to be dishonest at some point to achieve it.

the end justifies the means is not always

Many also argued that
successful and true principle.
The major criticism is that Machiavelli's ideas are immoral and unethical.

CONCLUSION:
To conclude, I must say that Machiavelli is quite misunderstood because most of the politicians
and political leaders who tried to follow his theory generally turned to be dictators, tyrants or
authoritarian leaders.
He is also called as “the child of Renaissance”, because he belong to a time when medieval age
was coming to an end and modern age was about to start i.e., the age of renaissance.