Abstract
Allowing one individual to rule a society with an almost kingly power may be useful and necessary when a free society is about to collapse. This can be seen from the examples of Abraham Lincoln and Charles de Gaulle whose actions have a lot in common with those that were once given to Roman dictators.
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Notes
- 1.
In his Discourses, Machiavelli writes: “(…) for it is seen through experience that cities have never expanded either in dominion or in riches if they have not been in freedom. And truly it is a marvelous thing to consider how much greatness Athens arrived at in the space of a hundred years after it was freed from the tyranny of Pisistratus. But above all, it is very marvelous to consider how much greatness Rome arrived at after it was freed from its kings. The reason is easy to understand, for it is not the particular good but the common good that makes cities great. And without doubt this common good is not observed if not in republics, since all that is for that purpose is executed, and although it may turn out to harm this or that private individual, those for whom the aforesaid does good are so many that they can go ahead with it against the disposition of the few crushed by it. The contrary happens when there is a Prince, in which case what suits him usually offends the city and what suits the city offends him” (Book 2, Section 2).
- 2.
From 1946 until 1958, France had 24 different governments.
- 3.
This was the opinion of François Mitterand, one of his fiercest opponents, who denounced the General’s personal tendency to govern alone in his essay Le coup d’état permanent. Paris: Plon, 1964.
- 4.
On many accounts, what de Gaulle did in 1958 was a “constitutional coup”. For Machiavelli, although this might be questionable, it is nonetheless excusable because of its consequences. As he writes in his Discourses: “A prudent Organizer of a Republic, therefore, who has in mind to want to promote, not himself, but the common good, and not his own succession but his (common) country, ought to endeavor to have the authority alone: and a wise planner will never reprimand anyone for any extraordinary activity that he should employ either in the establishment of a Kingdom or in constituting a Republic. It is well then, when the deed accuses him, the result should excuse him (…)” (Book 1, Section 9).
- 5.
As a young politician, Lincoln gave a speech in which he said: “Let every American (…) swear by the blood of the Revolution never to violate in the least particular the laws of the country, and never to tolerate their violation by others. (…) Let every man remember that to violate the law is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the charter of his own and his children’s liberty. Let reverence for the laws (…) become the political religion of the nation.” See Abraham Lincoln, Speeches and Writings 1832–58. New York: Library of America, 1989, p. 32.
- 6.
Which is why he was criticized by numerous of his compatriots who thought of him as a tyrant, a despot or as an uncompromising dictator. The most famous of them being John Wilkes Booth who killed him before shouting “sic semper tyrannis”.
- 7.
In order to secure the required number of votes he needed, Lincoln did not hesitate to offer recently defeated members of Congress federal jobs and money in exchange for their vote and deliberately lied to Congress about peace talks with the rebels.
- 8.
As Machiavelli writes about Romulus who killed his brother Remus in his Discourses: “This should be taken as a general rule: that it never or rarely happens that any republic or kingdom is ordered well from the beginning or reformed altogether anew outside its old orders unless it is ordered by one individual. Indeed it is necessary that one alone give the mode and that any such ordering depend on his mind. So a prudent orderer of a republic, who has the intent to wish to help not himself but the common good, not for his own succession but for the common fatherland, should contrive to have authority alone; nor will a wise understanding ever reprove anyone for any extraordinary action that he uses to order a kingdom or constitute a republic. It is very suitable that when the deed accuses him, the effect excuses him; and when the effect is good, as was that or Romulus, it will always excuse the deed” (Book 1, Section 9).
- 9.
For him, the extraordinary measures he took during the Civil War were “constitutional [because] the public safety require[d] them” but the same measures “would not be constitutional when, in absence of rebellion or invasion, the public safety does not require them”. See Abraham Lincoln, Speeches and Writings 1832–58. New York: Library of America, 1989, p. 460.
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Caron, JF. (2019). When Is It Necessary to Entrust Governance to One Individual: To Save a Democracy and Its Principles. In: The Prince 2.0: Applying Machiavellian Strategy to Contemporary Political Life. The Steppe and Beyond: Studies on Central Asia. Palgrave Pivot, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0353-5_6
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