Niccolo Machiavelli

Niccolo Machiavelli (May 3, 1469 June 21, 1527) lived in Florence, Italy. Machiavelli was an Italian philosopher, politician, writer and maybe one among the chief founders of semi governmental science. Since Machiavelli was a renaissance man, he acted in the capacity of a diplomat, a political philosopher, a musician, a playwright, a poet and a Florentine Republic civil servant. This paper therefore takes to go out the extent to which Machiavelli would consider the political ideologies of Thomas Paine, Karl Marx, Adolph Hitler and Franklin D. Roosevelt as feasible or meaningful.Thomas Paine Machiavelli would find the ideas of Paines political postulations in Common mind agreeable to a large extent. This is more so because Paine (2006) perceives the government as a punisher, and this role creation a derivative of the inherent criminal nature of man. To this effect, the government would act as the restrainer of human vices. The amenity with Machiavellis ideals is that this ide ology marries well with Machiavellis postulations about the leader being able to move fast to quash political foes so as to consolidate power (Machiavelli, 1868).It is obvious that the means of extirpating the influence of a political enemy would be states instruments of coercion (Paine, 2000). Karl Marx In the same(p) vein, Machiavelli would find the Marxist ideologies propounded by Karl Marx in the Communist Manifesto agreeable since through Karl Marxs teachings on the Class Consciousness and Antagonism, Marx explains on how the political elite, the bourgeoisie, exploits by using the state instruments and state forces, the working class (the proletariat) with the 2 dominant aims of consolidating political power and ensuring profit maximization from the proletariats (Marx and Engels, 1955).This well agrees with Machiavellis political ideology of The ends justifying the means- a maxim Karl Marx crafts to buttress his tilt that a ruler must use all means likely to seize and consol idate power, the killing of foes and friends alike, being inclusive of these means. Adolph Hitler Similarly, some ideas propounded by Hitler in his writings, Mein Kampf would be acceptable before Karl Marx. Hitler (1986) is reported as having posited that since the throng are always trivial and less smart, a leader should be one who is calculating, not having qualms to employ propaganda on the masses to achieve a political feat.This still underscores Machiavellis idea of the ends justifying the means. Similarly, Machiavelli espouses deeply the use of untruth (propaganda) to maintain power. Hitlers plans to create more room (Lebensraum) for Germans by accounting entry treaties with UK and Russia as an artifice to help in the recapturing of the Germanys lost tracts of sphere confirms Machiavellis ideas that a leader must be calculating and rattling cunning.The cunningness behind this proposed Russia, Germany and UK treaty is that the provision would ward off Germany from the exha ustion of rubbish concurrently both in the East and West (Manheim and Hitler, 1969). Franklin D. Roosevelt To a larger extent, Roosevelts postulations that are revealed in his inaugural speech that saw his transition from a New York governor to the 32nd US president would be considered as antithetical towards Machiavellis. The concept of political morality and stark allusions to determine pervade all the spectra of Roosevelts speech.Roosevelt is spurred on by morality piece of music Machiavelli on the other hand, political expedience. The only point Machiavelli would accept Roosevelts propositions is the fact that Roosevelt saw the need of broad executive powers being vested on the head of the executive in order to allow the occupant of this plaza deal with an invading foreign foe (Polenberg, 2000). Machiavelli talks of all the instruments at the disposal of the ruler being used to quash ruthlessly an enemy. closingNevertheless, it is important to consider that although compar ing ones political philosophy to another for scholarly proposes may remain as expedient, yet, any political philosophy has the merit to exist in its own right, provided the philosophy in picture captures the true identity of the state. It is by this virtue that al these philosophies which were march on by Thomas Paine, Karl Marx, Adolph Hitler and Franklin D. Roosevelt were considered as legitimate in the eyes of various(prenominal) citizens.