Throughout time, tracing back to long before any records were kept and farther than the mind can imagine, in the world of men there has always been rulers and servants. It is in man's nature to rule over other men, such as the philosopher Thomas Hobbes suggests in the Leviathan, "men are self-seeking" and want to "make themselves master of other men's person, wives, children and cattle." (Sterba, p142). There have been successful rulers and there has been anarchy. There is no written law or foolproof way on how to be a successful ruler. Niccolo Machiavelli however has written a guideline on how to rule. In his book, The Prince, Machiavelli laid the ground work on what one needs to do to be a successful, also suggestions on how gain power and how to maintain it once its been achrived. The Prince however is not a bible of any sort; it's merely serves as a guide, somewhat like the Dos and Don'ts of power, which could be titled "Dictators for Dummies," if it was written today. .
Many past and present dictators or rulers made have not read Machiavelli's The Prince, but many of them have practiced what he has suggested and pointed out in his book and have been very successful because of it. Some of the most recently successful rulers in the new century have been Adolf Hitler and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. They were all presented with the opportunity to be a ruler and they all lived up to it almost perfectly. While others did not do so well and quickly lost control such as former President Woodrow Wilson. Some rulers have the technique down almost to an exact science, while others are utterly lost in the world of power.
How does one become a price or a ruler? According to Machiavelli, one can inherit the position, such as a prince would inherit the throne from his father, the King. Inheriting power is the much easier to rule than taking over a new state. If one were to inherit power, all he would need is to know is the tradition and keep inline with them.
