“Americans no longer have faith in their leaders,” John Burtka writes in his new book, Gateway to Statesmanship: Selections from Xenophon to Churchill. And to help address this problem, Burtka has assembled excerpts from 20 works that he believes can revive the “mirrors for princes” literary tradition that once guided Western leaders for generations.
In addition to such classics as Xenophon’s The Education of Cyrus and Cicero’s Moral Duties, Burtak adds Eastern influences, including Kautilya’s Arthasastra and Han Fei’s The Difficulty of Persuasion. He also extends his canon into modern times with works from George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and, as the title of the book indicates, Winston Churchill.
“Not every admonition in this book is worthy of imitation,” Burtka writes. “Some are downright evil.” Burtka does not come out and say it explicitly, but he is most likely including Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince in this category of advice not “worthy of imitation.” “The brazen decoupling of politics and religion by Machiavelli,” Burtka argues, “ushered in the end of Christendom, hastening a centuries-long process of secularization that began in the eleventh century.” That’s quite the charge!
Burtka seems to prefer a contemporary of Machiavelli, Erasmus of Rotterdam, whose “life’s aim was to reform the Catholic Church from within” and whom Burtka describes as possessing “the greatest mind of the Christian humanists.”
Perhaps it is because I am a heathen, but in the excerpts presented by Burtka, Machiavelli seems to have the superior understanding of what true statesmanship requires.
“I say that every prince ought to be considered clement and not cruel,” Machiavelli writes in Chapter 17 of The Prince, which is included by Burtka in his book. “Nevertheless he ought to take care not to misuse his clemency.”
“Therefore a prince, so long as he keeps his subjects united and loyal, ought not to mind the reproach of cruelty,” Machiavelli continues, “because with a few examples he will be more merciful than those who, through too much mercy, allow disorders to arise, from which follow murders or robberies; for these are wont to injure the whole people, whilst those executions which originate with a prince offend the individual only.”
Just four paragraphs later, Machiavelli famously asks, “Whether it be better to be loved than feared or feared than loved?” To which Machiavelli answers, “One should wish to be both, but, because it is difficult to unite them in one person, it is much safer to be feared than loved.”
Contrast Machiavelli’s approach to maintaining order with that of Erasmus, who writes, “A good prince must therefore use every caution to prevent any possibility of losing the affections of his subjects.”
“The affections of the populace,” Erasmus continues, “are won by those characteristics which, in general, are farthest removed from tyranny. They are clemency, affability, fairness, courtesy, and kindliness. This last is a spur to duty, especially if they who have been of good service to the state, see that they will be rewarded at the hands of the prince. Clemency inspires to better efforts those who are aware of their faults, while forgiveness extends hope to those are now eager to make recompense by virtuous conduct for the shortcomings of their earlier life and provides the steadfast with a happy reflection on human nature. Courtesy everywhere endangers love — or at least assuages hatred. The quality in a great prince is by far the most pleasing to the masses.”
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Clemency may well inspire better efforts from those who are aware of their faults. But in an age when Democrats refuse to enforce our nation’s immigration laws on poor, oppressed immigrants and bend over backward to ignore theft and other petty crimes in urban neighborhoods, the necessity for rulers to choose fear over love has never been greater.
Machiavelli was correct in seeing that “too much mercy” will only bring far more harm to the people through “disorders.” If only more Democrats had read their Machiavelli.
