Machiavelli is a brilliant historical writer. He wrote pieces that many leaders throughout history have read, and have adopted his theories into their own rule. One of his greatest works The Prince, he states whether or not it is better for a leader to be feared or loved by his people. The answer to this question he states is both, he believes that it is best for a leader to be both loved and feared[Mac32]. However he also goes along to say that this is extremely difficult and most will not attain both therefore it is better to be feared. He also goes on to state that though being loved could be a good method of rule, a leader who is loved is much more vulnerable to revolt and being taken advantage of. Therefore being feared is much safer than being loved as when a leader is feared he still has the ability to make his/her people obey out of fear of what may happen if they are disobedient. A leader should be both feared and loved, however if this is not possible it is a better option to be feared as being loved comes with more chance of side effects.
A famous leader in history who was both feared and somewhat loved is Adolph Hitler. Hitler, though he did horrendous deeds was loved and feared among his people. Behind the entire story of the holocaust is all the good Hitler did for Germany. During Hitler's reign Germany was in one of its most stable time periods. He did thing such as establish the famous German Autobahn highway, he had young students tested to see what their strong suits were and directed them into a field that would ensure their success and many other things that benefited the German society[LOV14]. This made him rather favourable among the German people; however Hitler went against a key principle outlined in Machiavelli's book The Prince. Machiavelli states that a leader must avoid hatred by any means[Mac32]; Hitler failed to do so, thus leading to his eventually death.