The Problem of Power

It is safer for the prince to be feared than to be loved.
- Machiavelli, The Prince

Close your hearts to pity! Act brutally! The stronger man is right. Be harsh and remorseless! Be heeled against all signs of compassion' Whoever has pondered over this world order knows that its meaning lies in the success of the best by means of force.
- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

What kind of person makes the best leader?

St. Thomas wrote that earthly powers are given their authority by God, and so we ought to obey them. Sovereigns are the earthly manifestation of God's reason and therefore govern for the common good of all people. But if sovereigns make bad laws, laws that conflict with natural law (human nature) or divine law, such laws need not be obeyed. So even the sovereign, St, Thomas believed, is answerable to a higher power, namely, God.

Furthermore St. Thomas believed that Christianity must provide the basis for the governance of the people, and that therefore the ruler must be a good, Christian person--a moral person. But the Italian political philosopher Nicolo Machiavelli disagreed in almost every way with St. Thomas. Machiavelli believed (rightly) that the church of Rome was completely corrupt and was a divisive influence on politics, especially in Italy. And anyway Christianity preached such morals as meekness, obedience, etc.-- characteristics of the weak. The ruler, on the contrary, must be strong and ruthless. If he must lie for the good of the state, or kill, or rob, then he should. He should keep his promises only when it is good for himself and his people. And he must demand obedience from his people always, even when the laws are foolish or bad. In other words, according to Machiavelli the prince must do whatever is necessary for the well-being of his country, however ruthless or wicked he might seem to ordinary people. For the prince is beyond ordinary good and evil and answers to no power higher than himself.

Who is right? In seeking a leader should we look for a good, moral person or a strong, ruthless one? When we in America search. every four years, for a president, what sort of person do we want? What kind of leader do we need?

Bibliography

Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince, Airmont Publishing Company, New York, 1965.

Hitler, Adolf, Mein Kampf, 1924. Manheim translation, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1971.