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Machiavelli's Prince as Ceo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Kendall D'Andrade
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Abstract

The Machiavellian model is often praised as a realistic description of modern corporate life. My analysis of The Prince follows Rousseau in arguing that the prince can survive and prosper most easily by creating an environment in which almost all the citizens prosper. Far from licensing unrestrained self-aggrandizement, in this model success only comes from providing real value to almost every citizen for the entire period of one's leadership.

Translation from the early sixteenth to the late twentieth century is far from simple; for example, the CEO is in many ways far less powerful than a Medici prince. The closest approximation is a far less bureaucratic organization with very small units possessing maximum autonomy. Also, deciding who is, and who is not, a citizen is not nearly as straightforward as it was for Machiavelli; it probably includes every stakeholder on whom the corporation has a major impact.

Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 3 , Issue 4 , October 1993 , pp. 395 - 404
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 1993 

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References

Notes

1. While not denying the validity of the standard interpretation of the Ring of Gyges story in Book II, I suggest that this extended parable also supports my interpretation.

2. The famous Wilt Chamberlin example in Anarchy, State and Utopia.

3. A pleasant anticipation of Hegel's view in The Philosophy of Right.

4. With a descriptive subtitle just to be sure we don't miss the connection. A Contmeporary Rendering of The Prince. By W. T. Brahmstedt, ETC Publications, 1986.

5. Thus neither The Solid Gold Cadilac nor Wall Street are really orthodox. To be faithful to this aspect of his thought we need something more melodramatic, The China Syndrome, for instance.

6. My thanks to the Society for Business Ethics for picking this as one of the two best papers on their 1992 program, and for the Editor's invitation to publish it here. Substantially the same version was presented to the Midwest Academy of Legal Studies in March of ’92. Various revisions/extensions were presented at the October, 1992 meeting of the West Virginia Philosophical Society and the March, ’93 meeting of the Midwest Academy of Legal Studies. And my students have been hearing various versions over the last four years.