Machiavelli - A discussion on the place of morality in politics.

... December 8, 2003 Machiavelli: A discussion on the place of morality in politics Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince describes a world made up by extremes. Without a middle ground, there is no room for compassion, morality or private conscience. Machiavelli came to this conclusion by analyzing historical periods of turmoil. Based on these situations, Machiavelli felt that deviating from this stringent political behavior would result in a loss of power. Machiavelli's model, however, does not include human nature as a separate factor; human nature is instead an obstacle to be driven over. Methods to deal with the needs of the whole, which are separate from individual desires, are the only permanent aspects in his political discussion. Yet in today's world the state is ideally meant to be more closely connected to the people; the individual needs that he ignores are a critical component of today's state. As such,

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