Machiavelli, A Founding Father?

Machiavelli advocated centralization and soaking up of creator in The Prince while the authors of the federal officialist Papers c all told for the separation of powers and a system of checks and balances. The Prince, however, was a job application to Lorenzo di Medici the son of Piero di Medici. Lorenzo had just get the principality of Florence by settle ment of a war with the Pope and his mercenaries ( Lerner xxvii) in 1512.Machiavelli, was however, non as alien to the ideas of the Convention espoused by the various federalist Papers. For often of his life he was staunchly republican in his outlook the red of the Florentine Republic and his position as an advisor to the mighty were powerful motivators to write a pro-monarchy text to regain his former position in the new state.( Lerner xxviii)During this imposed exile from the halls of power Machiavellis works include the Discourses, an analysis of the Roman Republic, its power structure, and its defects. In The Discourses M achiavelli is plainly pro-republic, though he also manages to treat the issue of a monarchy as salubrious. Machiavellis ideas be included to some degree in the Federalist Papers and the Constitution of the coupled countrys.Machiavelli, Hamilton, Jay, and Madison would all find agreement in some of the just about important aspects of the governing of a Republic including the use of a stand up army and the separation of powers.Standing Army The issue of a standing(a) army was a touchy hotshot for the convention. The military was part of the decision maker power and a standing army could be abused. Indeed he warns of this in Federalist 8 But in a country, where the perpetual menacings of insecurity oblige the government to always be prep bed to repel it, her armies are must be numerous enough for instant defence. The importance of the of the soldier is enhanced and the military state is elevated above the well-bred. In territories that are often the theatre of war , are unav oidably subjected to frequent infringement of their rights and by degrees the people come to consider the soldier their superiors. ( 8, p35)However , the Convention go away the raising of regular troops solely under the authority of copulation, and not the professorship.Thus they are under the control of the people the Congress shall try when a standing military is necessary before a President has them to Command. Hamilton says that the power to maintain a standing army in while of peace is a necessary caution make itn the f set that the Dominions of Britain and Spain redact the fledgling nation.(24, p120). Machiavelli would agree Such princes and republics of modern times as get d corroborate got no national troops for defense or attack ought well to be ashamed of it. (prince 175) and I conclude, therefore, that no principality is secure without having its own forces (Prince pg 52-53)Separation of PowersThe separation of powers has been regarded as the hallmark of republi can dogmas. The separation of power among three distinct branches of government prevents any one person from playacting as legislator, judge, and executioner. In this way the abuse of power leading to one-man rule is avoided.Machiavelli states much the same in The DiscoursesALL those who have written upon civil institutions demon-strate (and history is full of examples to support them) thatwhoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must startwith assuming that all men are naughtiness and ever ready to displaytheir vicious nature, whenever they may find designer for it. ( 117)An early form of the system checks and balances was the formation of the Tribunes in the Roman Republic. The Tribunes served to act as a sort of Legislative judge curbing and look into alleged excesses by the Senators of capital of Italy.( Machiavelli, Discourses, 118) The Convention went further it gave executive authority to the President, still withheld the purse, and it gave the Sword to Congr ess just required the Executive to wield it, and gave the virtue to Congress but allowed both the Justice and Executive to disapprove it, gave Congress the means to remove an executive or a justice from office, but made the members of Congress answerable to the whole of the People.Madison says that The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judicial in the same hands, whether of one, of few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may right be pronounced the very definition of Tyranny.(Carey lxx) So both men believed that the separation of powers in a Republic is a fundamental principle defending the indecorum of the citizen. Both men also believed that the authority of the commanding executive should to some respect be stronger than that of the regional powers.While the Federal system resembles more closely the Prince and Baron model warned against by Machiavelli by means of well-thought out assignment of the powers to the Federal Governm ent the position of the regional powers (Governors of the States) cost the Prince and Servants model advocated by him. The Convention took the middle ground with the powers of the Executive (federal) creation supreme only in its assigned sphere and that of the regional to be supreme within its own sphere. Conflicts between States and the Federal authority were to be resolved by the Supreme Court. Therefore no one State was in a position to help outside enemies to oppose the Federal government, but simultaneously the Federal authority could not rule by fiat as a Prince might have done.ConclusionSo which model was more capable of maintaining order and curtailing disorder from below? business relationship seems to indicate that the careful checks and balances and the general separation of powers have been more abiding than a centralized Monarchy. France proved the wisdom of the system of checks and balances when the National collection seized all power for the purpose of reforming the government. This attempt, while its aims were noble, failed catastrophically and subjected the People of France to a series of tyrants, emperors, and various violations of their civil liberties for nearly a century.Absolute Monarchy as Machiavelli said, is stable only so long as the ruler is unkind when necessary and is all loved or feared by its people. The problem seems to be that this merely builds up pressure in the people who will dismount to rebel the moment any hesitation by the monarch is shown either internally or through circumstance such as war. This movement happened on a world-wide scale and was experienced by Britain, France, Egypt, Iran, and may be happening now in Saudi Arabia and the Emirates of the Middle East.Machiavelli states that all laws of liberty come from the open competition in the legislature between dickens classes the Nobles and the People.(Machiavelli, Discourses, p119) The constitution eliminated the Nobility but a similar problem of factio ns Those who have power, those who want power, those who want to oppress. In a similar fashion to the Tribunes of Rome the various divisions of power executive, legislative, judicial, the National, and the Regional allow open discussion and opposition without providing any overt favor to one faction over some other( Madison, Federalist 10, pp 42-48) ensuring that laws of liberty continue to come from the discourses of those vying for power. ( Madison, Federalist 10, pp42-48)The Republican ideas that Machiavelli held and promulgated in his works might well mark him as one of the founders of the modern republic along with Locke, Montesque, and the other Enlightenment philosophers.Works CitedCarey, George W. and jam McClellan. Readers Guide. The Federalist. By Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison. capital of Indiana self-reliance Fund 2001Hamilton, Alexander, John Jay, and James Madison. The Federalist. Ed. George W. Carey and James McClellan. The Gideon Edition. Indianap olis Liberty Fund 2001Learner, Max. Introduction. The Prince and the Discourses. By Niccolo Machiavelli. New York haphazard House 1950Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince. Ed. E.R.P Vincent. Trans. Luigi Ricci. The Prince and the Discourses. New York Random House 1950Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Discourses. Trans. Christian E. Detmold. The Prince and the Discourses. New York Random House 1950