This essay will discuss what Niccolo Machiavelli meant by his term New Prince.ö It will consider how this new prince differs from previous or contemporary rulers. It will also consider the kind of politics that Machiavelli prescribes in discussing the conditions necessary for the emergence of a new principality.
Machiavelli introduces the concept of the ônew princeö in Chapters V through IX of The Prince (pp. 19-39). By a new prince he means a man who has become an autocratic ruler, or monarch, of a state that had previously had some other, unrelated ruler or some other form of government. In these chapters, he discusses the various paths by which a man could become a new prince: oneÆs own abilities, that is, military conquest; fortune, that is, appointment by a new conqueror; treachery, that is, by a coup dÆetat; and election, either by the few rich and powerful or by the general populace.
The first three of these methods most Americans would now probably consider simply illegal, except after a war. For example, the Allies were in the position of being a new Prince after the conquest of Germany in 1945. The fourth method most Americans would consider to be normal party politics, with the Republicans being supposedly the party of the rich and powerful and the Democrats the party of the general public.
Machiavelli groups these paths in terms of whether they depend more on a personÆs own abilities or more on fortune or luck. The biggest difference between these groupings is in terms of the political policies needed to rule the new principalities. Also, within these groupings, the paths are not always completely distinct. For example, if a man conquers his own home state by military means, this may be hard to distinguish from a coup dÆetat.
The newness of a New Prince lies in the fact that he represents some sort of disruption of the old patterns. With a new military conqueror, this is obvious. However, ev...