Leaders of the world are not just a regular breed of individuals. In present days, the United States citizens elect representatives through a very precautious procedure; people know if the wrong person were to get into office they could cause a downfall of a nation. Not all of Machiavelli's principles of a leader are strongly practiced in today's world, yet when revised many compare incredibly to the way the American government is governed. .
In The Qualities of the Prince, Machiavelli discusses a number of traits that he believes a prince or ruler of his time must have to be safe, successful, and loved by his people. Machiavelli believed in exploring both sides of an issue, "the art of war and the art of life, liberality and stinginess, cruelty and clemency, the fox and the lion" (36). Most of his instances have something to do with war, he is very repetitive in many of his believed traits and he stands firm with them by giving many examples. By reading The Qualities of a Prince it is very easy to assume that Machiavelli was brilliant in his thoughts during his time, this leaves one to ponder the thought of how successful these traits would be in modern American politics.
Americans elect leaders with certain distinct qualities, Machiavelli's beliefs on leaders characteristics don't totally relate to our expectations. He does mention that he doesn't recommend tyranny, meaning one ruler have all the power or use it too his advantage. In American government there are no tyrants, all the power is distributed into branches where decisions are made on agreement on that of which will help the American people the most. The majority of Machivelli's characteristics of a good leader would not get a man elected in the United States, in his time that wasn't applicable because you were born a leader. Machiavelli wrote of it to be good to be generous but said that a reputation of it will harm you, stating that nothing will use itself up quicker than generosity (41).
