The Prince Summary

By Niccolò Machiavelli

Machiavelli’s classic on power: how rulers win and keep it, being feared versus loved, and how to read the book today.

A Small Book That Changed Our Understanding of Politics

Welcome to this summary of The Prince by the Italian thinker Niccolò Machiavelli, a book written more than five hundred years ago, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and which remains one of the most widely read and controversial works of political thought in the world.

Machiavelli lived in Florence during a time when Italy was fragmented into warring city-states, with armies from France, Spain, and the Papacy intervening in its affairs. He worked for many years as a diplomat and official in the government of the Florentine Republic, observing firsthand how rulers govern and how they fall. Then, when the Medici family returned to power, he lost his position, was briefly imprisoned and tortured, and then retired to a country house. There, he wrote this book and dedicated it to a member of the ruling family, hoping to return to work.

What was new about Machiavelli's approach was that he did not write about the ideal ruler as they ought to be, as many before him had done. Instead, he wrote about politics as it actually is. He believed that anyone who acts in the political world according to how things should be, while ignoring how they actually are, works towards their own ruin, not their salvation. This is where his fame comes from, and also the controversy surrounding him.

Types of Principalities and the Difficulty of New Rule

The book begins by classifying states. There are hereditary principalities, ruled by the descendants of a family that people are accustomed to. These, in his view, are easy to maintain because people are familiar with their rulers, and the ruler only needs to avoid violating the customs of their ancestors. Then there are new principalities, which a ruler acquires through their own strength, luck, or the help of others, and these are the most difficult.

A new ruler faces a dual problem: those who lost their interests with his arrival become his enemies, and those who helped him gain power cannot be satisfied to the extent they expected, causing him to lose their enthusiasm. Therefore, Machiavelli advises the ruler to reside in the territory he has conquered himself, so he can see problems when they are small and address them before they grow.

He differentiates between those who come to power through their competence and strength, and those who achieve it through luck or the money and armies of others. The former struggles to gain power but retains it easily. The latter gains power easily but remains dependent on the will of those who elevated him, and falls when luck abandons him.

He gives the example of Cesare Borgia, the Pope's son, who obtained his principality through his father's influence, and then tried to consolidate his rule through his own strength and cunning. Machiavelli recounts that when Borgia took control of a turbulent region, he appointed a cruel governor who restored order with severity. Then, when people began to hate this cruelty, Borgia publicly and horrifyingly disposed of that governor to deflect hatred from himself and satisfy the people. Machiavelli admires Borgia's intelligence but notes that he ultimately fell when his father died and he himself fell ill at the same time, meaning when luck abandoned him.

Your Own Army First

One of Machiavelli's most emphasized ideas is that the strength of a state rests on two things: good laws and a good army, and there are no good laws without a good army. He strongly criticizes reliance on mercenaries, hired soldiers, who were common in Italy in his time.

Mercenaries, in his view, fight only for money, which is not enough to make them die for you. They are brave in front of friends, cowardly in front of enemies. If their leaders are competent, they will covet power themselves; if they are weak, they will lose your battles. Auxiliary armies sent by a powerful ally are even more dangerous, because if they win, you become a prisoner of their master.

Therefore, he advises the ruler to rely on an army of his own people and to make preparation for war and the study of its arts his constant occupation, even in times of peace.

Cruelty and Leniency, and Avoiding Contempt

Machiavelli discusses rulers who came to power through bloody means, distinguishing between cruelty used well, as he calls it, and cruelty used badly. The former, in his opinion, is committed once out of necessity to consolidate power, after which the ruler stops and turns to what benefits the people. The latter begins small and then increases over time, so people never feel safe. Therefore, he advises that cruel acts should be done all at once, and benefits should be granted little by little, so people can savor them and their effect lasts longer.

He warns the ruler against being held in contempt, not just being hated. Contempt, in his view, arises when the ruler appears fickle, careless, cowardly, or indecisive, not knowing what he wants. The ruler must display greatness, courage, and resolve in his actions, and his decisions must be final and irreversible, so that no one thinks they can deceive him or change his mind.

He believes that the best fortress for a ruler is not to be hated by his people. Castles and walls are useless to a ruler whom the people hate, because his enemies will always find someone from within to help them.

Fear or Love?

In one of the book's most famous chapters, Machiavelli poses a question: Is it better for a ruler to be loved or feared? He answers that it is best to be both, but if one cannot be both, it is safer to be feared than loved. His argument is that people are fickle; they promise you everything as long as you give them, then abandon you in times of trouble. Love is a bond that people break when it conflicts with their interests, but the fear of punishment does not easily disappear.

However, he sets an important condition: the ruler must avoid being hated. The way to do this is to stay away from people's property and their women. People, he says, forget the death of their fathers sooner than they forget the loss of their money.

He also discusses generosity and parsimony. Excessive generosity, in his view, depletes the ruler's treasury, forcing him eventually to raise taxes on the people, who then hate him. A ruler who is economical in his public spending is initially accused of parsimony, but he protects the people from burdens, and thus ultimately earns their appreciation.

The Fox and the Lion

One of the most controversial ideas in the book is his discussion of keeping promises. He admits that keeping one's word is a beautiful virtue, but he observes that rulers who achieved great accomplishments in his time did not always adhere to their word; rather, they knew how to deal with people's minds with cunning.

He uses a famous image: a ruler must be both a fox and a lion. The lion cannot protect itself from traps, and the fox cannot protect itself from wolves. So, the ruler needs the cunning of the fox to detect traps and the strength of the lion to frighten wolves.

Here, many critics believe that Machiavelli separated politics from morality and justified the use of deception and cruelty if they served the survival of the state. That is why his name in many languages has become a description for anyone who believes that the end justifies the means, even though he did not write this phrase in these exact words. Others believe that he was honestly describing the harsh reality of his era, not advocating for it.

Advisors, Flatterers, and Fortune

Machiavelli advises the ruler to choose competent and loyal ministers, and that the ruler's intelligence can be judged by the men he surrounds himself with. One sign of an untrustworthy minister is if he thinks more about his own interests than the state's.

He warns against flatterers, who fill the courts of rulers. The solution, in his opinion, is for the ruler to choose a small number of wise men, allow only them to tell him the truth when he asks, and then make his own decision and stick to it.

At the end of the book, he discusses fortune. He believes that fortune controls about half of what happens to us, leaving the other half to our will. He likens fortune to a raging river that overflows and destroys everything, but people can, in calm times, build dams and canals to limit its danger. A wise ruler is one who prepares for changes before they come.

Machiavelli concludes his book with an impassioned plea to the Medici family, calling on them to unite Italy and liberate it from the foreign armies that contend for it. This final chapter reveals that the book, despite its cold realism, carried a national dream of a strong, united Italy, a dream that was not realized until more than three centuries later.

Conclusion

The Prince remains an important book for understanding power, how it is gained, and how it is lost. It offers realistic lessons in preparation, self-reliance, choosing advisors, and being wary of flatterers. However, it also contains ideas that conflict with values of justice and honesty, and therefore it should be read with a critical eye, to understand politics as it was practiced, not to imitate it in every respect.

This has been a summary of The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli. We have presented its most important ideas in our own style. The book is short and translated into Arabic, and we recommend reading it in full. You have been listening to Hakawati.

The Prince: frequently asked questions

What is the main idea in Machiavelli's The Prince?

That politics should be understood as it is in reality, not as it ought to be, and that a ruler must do what preserves his state, relying on his own army, avoiding the hatred of the people, and combining cunning with strength.

Is it better for a ruler to be loved or feared, according to Machiavelli?

It is best to be both, but if that is not possible, it is safer, in his view, to be feared, provided he does not become hated, by staying away from people's property and their women.

Did Machiavelli say that the end justifies the means?

He did not write the phrase in these exact words, but it has become a common summary of his ideas because he justified in some places the use of cruelty and cunning if they served the survival of the state.

Can I download the audio summary?

Yes, you can listen to it for free from this page or download it as an MP3 to listen without an internet connection.