A Report About Niccolo Machiavelli History Essay

A Report About Niccolo Machiavelli History Essay Niccolo Machiavelli was born in 1469 in Florence. Since 1484, Florence had a republican government after ruling Medici family and its supporters were driven from power. Machiavelli suffered from this regime change: first he was sent to an internal exile and later was imprisoned and tortured for several weeks when (wrongly) suspected of conspiring against the Medici family in 1513. Following which, he retired to his farm outside Florence. This drove him to turn to literary pursuits and he wrote his famous study on power, ‘The Prince’ in 1517. The Prince was primarily a guide book for his prince, Lorenzo De Medici, to help him promote himself into the political set up of Italy. Machiavelli analyzed power and the ways for Italy to gain it to become independent and keep control. The explanations in the book were driven by Machiavelli’s own attraction with power and his deep desire for an independent Italy. His ideas on the rules of power caters to the struggles for a ll levels of power, from a common man struggling in the world of business to strategies performed by the political leaders in the sixteenth century to now. ‘The Prince’ is primarily a study of power in which Machiavelli suggests how political power should be acquired, utilized, and maintained by the ruler. (Fischer, 2000), (Source: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/machiavelli/ ) Machiavelli always asserted the importance of acquisition of power, he thinks it comes naturally to all humans and the one who does acquire power should be praised and not blamed. Machiavelli’s Philosophy beyond Acquisition of Power: Machiavelli doesn’t just concentrated on acquisition of power, he said that the real concern of any ruler is the not just acquisition but also maintenance of power. On the basis of his past experiences with the Florentine government, he supports the view that being right and good human being is not sufficient to acquire and maintain political offi ce. He feels power typically defines political activity; therefore any ruler must know how it is used. Since only by proper application of power, can rulers make individuals obey them and will be able to enforce law to maintain peace in the state. â€Å"one can say this in general of men: they are ungrateful, disloyal, insincere and deceitful, timid of danger and avid of profit†¦. Love is a bond of obligation which these miserable creatures break whenever it suits them to do so; but fear holds them fast by a dread of punishment that never passes† (Machiavelli 1965, 62; translation altered) Thus we see that Machiavelli believes that fear is always preferable to love while dealing with subjects, because laws are enforced on the basis of threat of coercive force, because people obey law due to the fear of results of not doing the same, whether the loss of life or other punishments. These are all Machiavelli’s views on how to maintain power not acquire it. His pragmat ic political ideas are based on two elements: The political environment in the world at that point in time was divided and commanded by powers with no possibility of unification. That time no political leader at that time who was using the kind of force Machiavelli thought was required for peace. He thought that a price feared by his subjects would ensure their loyalty. On human nature, Machiavelli thought humans are basically greedy and selfish and their actions are driven more by fear than by love. As a political philosopher, his attempt was to introduce a new way to create a society, which according to him was different from the one existing. Though his philosophy has been regarded as evil by many, but in practice most business leaders and politicians agree and follow it and regard it as the physics of power. The philosophy put forward in The Prince, is popularly known as Machiavellianism and is defined as: â€Å"The political doctrine of Machiavelli, which denies the rel evance of morality in political affairs and holds that craft and deceit are justified in pursuing and maintaining political power.† We can explain this with simple saying that as far as power is concerned, the end justifies the means. The core thought of Machiavelianism is that the purpose of the ruler (power holder) is to maintain peace and security of the state irrespective of the morality of the means.

Read Case 7.2 titled Poverty and Pollution, prior to starting this Essay

Read Case 7.2 titled Poverty and Pollution, prior to starting this assignment - Essay Example In many third world countries, large volumes of the population live in poverty conditions due to lack of quality infrastructure, lack of taxation revenues for government improvements, or even warring regimes attempting to seize power as a primary goal that depletes national resources. This is why businesses that conduct their operations in poor nations disregard pollution control standards: Because they can easily get away with these actions with little to no consequence. Thoroughly assessed the connections between economic progress and development, on the one hand, and pollution controls and environmental protection, on the other. Thoroughly suggested the reasons a business may conduct operations in a third world country and disregard any standards of pollution control. Many third world nations, since government is unable to stimulate economic growth internally, rely on foreign direct investment as a means of trying to stimulate the national economy. Many will provide taxation incen tives or even removal of tariffs as a means to foster foreign investment, which provides an ample incentive to move operations from developed nations to the third world country. For example, in Yemen, there are viable opportunities for water-based transport industry leaders to invest in the nation. The Yemen currency is substantially below that of major nations such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia, therefore companies attempt to exploit these opportunities for substantial profitability when local investments require very little start-up or asset procurement capital. Between 2009 and 2011, transport and shipping projects were estimated to be valued at $9 billion, with much of this foreign investment being recruited by the country’s Council of Ministers (United Nations, 2009). Using Yemen as the relevant example, companies will establish operations in this country due to the political problems currently plaguing the nation. Powerful militant groups in this country took over the majority of government oversight, forcing the nation to consider a complete rewrite of its constitution. Instability in this country politically defies opportunities for the business to devote resources to attempt to impose sanctions on businesses that pollute, therefore it becomes simplistic business practice to simply dump its unwanted waste in the country and in its waters without concern of local government backlash, fines, or complete dejection from the nation. Yemen is a member of the United Nations, however the UN only maintains jurisdiction in partnership with the legal systems abiding in the country. By the time nations such as Yemen with difficult political environments make legally-supported appeals to the UN to curb pollution by foreign companies, the ensuing process is so elongated that the business is able to exploit foreign nation resources and simply move to another, less developed third world country. Are the aforementioned practices of bu siness polluting in other nations due to lack of authority over government or UN-supported legalities ethical? Any reasonable individual that believes in corporate social responsibility and many global standards of human rights would absolutely indicate that this is highly unethical. However, at the same time, a person considering the ethical responsibility of foreign businesses must consider the theory of ethical relativism before making a determination. Those in global society that are strong supporters of ethical relati

Description of Target Audience Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Description of Target Audience - Essay Example The athletes have their own specific style of playing a sport. These audiences can identify the major positive outcomes or the concerns with the co-athlete. The athletes may be a serious resource in locating the best ways to crack a selection process. The athletes are the people who can rate the kind of effort you have had put in the game or event. So, the athletes are the valuable audience to validate your performance. The athletes serve as a word of mouth propaganda tool for promoting to an authenticate source. The sports institutions are the first major path which would open the competition to show case your skills in your concerns region. The athletic institutions are set up to capture the glimpse of the regional talent in a concerned region. The institutions are provided with the standards the athlete should meet on which the potential Olympic athlete can work on. The athlete institutions provide necessary infrastructure with the support of various government and private sports promoters. The tools and expertise provided in the institutions can add on for to focus more enhancing the performance level. The coaching these institutions provide for a group will certainly provide a platform to share the expertise among the peers. The potential athlete should therefore should therefore more conscious about the kind of sport he is into, the kind of institution he/she target, he/she should have a clear idea of the kind of the exposure he/she will get. The potential athlete should chalk down the selection process clearly to join the sports institution. The coaches are the knowledge banks about the intricities involved in the achieving the highest level of standards. A sports coach creates the right conditions for learning to happen and to provide the motivating factors both physically and mentally to the athletes. Athletes who are highly motivated to their task can seek the