Week Three
A. Shadow each other in practice undertaking a task which is central to your professional role B Arrange to jointly observe two collaborative experiences which involve interprofessional team
2.4 Interprofessional Learning
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state and authority as traditionally conceived but more of legitimising power, power in the „de-facto‟ situation.
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A prince needs not necessarily have all good qualities…
But he should certainly appear to have them. If he has these qualities and always behaves accordingly he will find them harmful; if he only appears to have them, they will render him service. He should appear to be compassionate, faithful to his word, kind and devout.
And indeed he should be so, but his disposition should be such that, if he needs to be the opposite he knows how. 33
objections and the dangers which it presents: and if its perils exceed its advantages, they should avoid it even though it had been in accordance with their previous determination. 32 He went further to out-line more guidelines for princes on how to retain power. Another thing necessary for the Prince in order to retain his power if he wishes is Deceit. He cited an instance with Alexander IV whose success was made possible because he was the greatest deceiver that ever lived. He believes that;
The prince should as much as possible avoid being despised.
For Machiavelli, in order to win the favour of the people, the prince must avoid those things that would make people hate him or treat him with contempt, such as being greedy or grabbing, violating other people‟s rights. He suggests that men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can revenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot.
Therefore, the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge.
In giving recommendations to princes who wish to retain power, he continued that the prince should use force ruthlessly.
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How we live is no difference from how we ought to live… A man striving in every way to be good will meet his ruin among the great numbers who are not good. Hence, it is necessary for a prince, if he wishes to remain in power to learn how not to be good and to use his knowledge or refrain from using it as he may need. 34
For him, it is the most important rule for the prince to observe about states which are acquired when they have been accustomed to live at liberty under their own laws. Machiavelli suggested other ways of holding them; the second is to go and live there in person and the third is to allow them to live under their own laws, taking tribute of them and creating within the country a government composed of few who will keep it friendly to him.
The question of goodness and how we ought to live should not be given much emphasis because, how we are is not different from how we ought to live. Lending his support to this, he writes;
To retain power acquired solely by good fortune, especially those to whom some state is given either for money or by the favour of him who bestows it. When one finds himself in this position, he has to be prepared at once to hold that which fortune has thrown into his laps and then later lay the foundations others have laid before they become princes. Unless they are men of great worth and ability, it is not reasonable to expect that they should know how to command, having lived in a private condition.
Besides they can be friendly and unfaithful.
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Another way of retaining power as suggested by Machiavelli is the use of persuasion artfully. Power is not always maintained by the use of force, especially among the prudent rulers.
Secondly, force is an expensive and inefficient instrument of government. Hence to retain power, a prince must learn not to be always good. Stumpf in his commentary buttressed this fact as he writes; “Let the prince therefore aim at conquering and maintaining the state, the means will always be judged honourably and passed by everyone”. 35
It is clear from the above statement that Machiavelli encouraged the prince to fear nothing except the loss of power.
Moreover, he suggested the art of war as the surest means of retaining political power since power justifies every means used to acquire it. He then advices the prince to have a clear knowledge of war and its disciplines. This is because, the shortest way to loose a state is by neglecting the art of war whereas being skilled in the art of war enhances the retention of power in the state, hence; “a prince therefore must have no other object or thought nor acquire skill in anything except war, its organisation and its discipline… The first way to loose your state is to neglect the art of war; the first way to win a state is to be skilled in the art of war”.36 Power can also be retained by acting decisively. This is what people call having fore-sight. The act of one moving promptly and firmly without fear of making mistakes rather than
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hesitating or procrastinating. Hesitation, Machiavelli maintained is one sure way to destruction.
On another note, for a prince to retain his power, he must have and maintain a strong National Army. To act decisively implies having a strong National Army backing him always otherwise, he will be crushed. He emphasised the danger attached to having army composed of mercenaries and auxiliaries and further laments that when one has such an army, he is neither firm nor safe. Finally, to retain power, a wise prince ought to adopt such a course that his citizens will always be in every need of the state and of him and then he will always find them faithful.