Niccolo Machiavelli - BBC Documentary 720p

(bell tolling)

- [Alan] Niccolo Machiavelli,

16th-century Italian diplomat,

political thinker, arch-baddie.

His name conjures up everything

that's sly about human behavior.

- Well, we have an image of
what the Machiavellian is.

I mean, the word is in our
dictionaries, he is an adjective.

- [Man] "Machiavellian:
astute, cunning, intriguing."

- Controlling, powerful.

- Sinister, underhand.

- Devious, scheming.

- Cunning, subtle.

- Nefarious, manipulative

and to a degree, cruel.

- Peter Mandelson regularly
gets described as Machiavellian,

I was regularly described
as Machiavellian.

- [Alan] And it's all
because of this: The Prince,

written 500 years ago.

It's about power, how to
get it and how to keep it.

- "It can be said of men
that they are ungrateful,

"fickle liars and deceivers.

"They shun danger and
are greedy for profit.

"Therefore, it is necessary for a ruler

"who wishes to maintain his position

"to learn how to be able not to be good."

- [Alan] Machiavelli
wrote The Prince in 1513.

It was shocking then
and it's shocking now.

- It's almost as if his
name, itself, machi-evil,

it just lends itself to
a form of demonization.

- "Chapter 17, of cruelty and mercy,

"and whether it is better
to be loved than feared.

"Or the contrary."

- There is absolutely nobody in history

who's had more influence on
modern affairs, on politics,

than Niccolo Machiavelli.

- [Alan] So what are we to
make of The Prince on this,

its 500th anniversary?

How useful and relevant is it today?

- One of the most important
books ever written

and a really useful how-to
guide for contemporary reality.

- [Alan] Was Machiavelli right?

Should we all learn how not to be good?

Is it better to be feared than loved?

And who are the
21st-century Machiavellians?

(dramatic music)

(birds chirping)
(wings fluttering)

(ominous music)

Actually, we're not in Florence.

we're 10 miles south of
Florence in San Casciano.

This was Machiavelli's
country house in the 1500s

and I'm here for a guided tour.

(knocking)

(speaking in foreign language)

Where he wrote The Prince?

- Si, exactly.

- [Alan] And what is this?

- That is his coat of arms.

His family's coat of arm.

The cross and the nails.

- [Alan] The cross and the nails.

- [Lucia] Mmm-hmm.

Machiavelli.

- [Alan] What does that mean?

- It refers back to his name, Machiavelli,

so related with the cross
and the nails of Christ.

- [Alan] Not a bad coat
of arms for a man who,

for centuries, was
known as the Antichrist.

But the cross and nails
might just as well stand

for the violent times
Machiavelli lived through.

- Florence was a city-state,

occupying and controlling
only a very small portion

of a very chaotic Italy,

surrounded by other city-states
that were allies on Tuesday,

enemies on Wednesday and then
allies again on Thursday.

The situation was constantly changing.

It was very treacherous,

you didn't know who your friends were

and you couldn't trust anyone,

so they had to be clever.

- [Alan] Before he wrote The Prince,

Machiavelli worked here at the
Palazzio Vecchio in Florence.

The old regime, run by the
Medici, had just been deposed.

A new regime was in charge
and Machiavelli served them

as a high-flying diplomat.

- Machiavelli found himself at the center

of all the diplomatic and political

negotiations within that period.

And it was his ability
as a political analyst

that enabled him to advance.

- [Alan] But just when things were going

so well for Machiavelli,

the Medici returned to power

and events took a dramatic turn,

events that would ultimately lead

to the writing of The Prince.

- He was falsely accused
in February of 1513

of taking part in an
anti-Medician conspiracy.

And he's horribly tortured.

And then he's thrown into prison.

- [Alan] There aren't many documents

relating to Machiavelli at this time.

But this year British
historian Stephen Milner

discovered one of the
most important of all.

He was researching Florentine town criers

when he stumbled across
Machiavelli's arrest warrant.

- Florence was an incredible
place for collecting documents,

partly because they
didn't trust each other.

They were, where are we?

There we go.

- Oh, there we go.

So, this is it? You just happened to...

- I ordered this particular volume,

and this was the one that contained

the original proclamation.

It was carried through the
city by the town crier,

and that, they actually
would have read and held

whilst on horseback
through the various places

where these proclamations were made.

You can see there's a
little hole in the middle

where they put them on a
spike for record-keeping.

And here we see Niccolo di
me se Bernardo Machiavelli.

- So, what is the arrest for?

- The proclamation is asking,

it's a notice asking for the
whereabouts of Machiavelli

and for people to come
forward with information.

It actually says within the hour,

(speaking in foreign language)

which gives you some idea of the urgency

that lay behind his arrest.

And it says, "If they are not informed,

"they will not be excused."

So there were no excuses
for not notifying.

- [Alan] Tough stuff. (chuckles)

- It is a kind of most-wanted
proclamation, if you like.

I think working in the
archives in Florence,

it's kind of a drug, in a
sense, of archive fever.

You never know when you turn a page

what you're going to bump into.

There's a lovely proverb
from the Renaissance

period that says,

(speaking in foreign language)

"Get it in writing, you
can't trust anybody."

It's almost a kind of mantra for

Machiavelli's own writing, I think.

- Well, here we are in the Bargello,

which is the Florentine
police headquarters,

and this is where Machiavelli was brought

shortly after he was arrested.

He claimed that he was tortured,

that he was actually
put on a form of rack,

that he went three notches
on the rack without cracking.

But there's absolutely no evidence

that he was involved in this conspiracy.

- But he has a stroke
of good fortune as well,

which is, the next month,

the Pope Julius dies

and the Medici acquire the papacy, Leo X.

And he declares great rejoicings
in the city and an amnesty,

and so Machiavelli is freed.

- [Stephen] But he was in
effect banned from the city,

he was sent out to his farmhouse

and kept under house arrest.

Rather like being on probation,

he had to remain within a
certain distance of the city

and that's where, in his
study, he began to write

what we now know as The Prince.

- And here he is.

- "Those who wish to win
the favor of a prince

"will generally approach him

"with gifts they believe
will most delight him.

"Hence we see princes
being offered horses, arms,

"vestments of gold and
similar accoutrements.

"I have found among my possessions

"nothing I value higher

"than my knowledge of
the deeds of great men."

- [Alan] This is how Machiavelli

begins The Prince in 1513,

with a dedication to
Lorenzo the Magnificent,

the young Medici ruler.

It was a blatant attempt to
suck up to the new regime.

You need me, he's saying,

because I know the secrets of power.

The book is in essence a job application.

- We have here The Prince manuscript.

As you see, it is beautifully illuminated

and it's datable about 1520s,

and it's in the hand of the
closest friend of Machiavelli,

Biagio Buonaccorsi.

It's one of the most eldest
copy absolutely ever.

And, as you see here,

Niccolo Machiavelli addresses the book

to Lorenzo The Magnificent

and here you have no title.

So, the book is without title.

The Prince is the title
the editors gave the book

when the book was actually published,

five years after the death of Machiavelli.

This is another fascinating
detail of this book.

- [Alan] So, The Prince wasn't actually

called The Prince

and there are more surprises, too.

- Well, the first thing you
notice if you pick up The Prince

is that it's an extremely short book,

it runs to only 90 pages.

It's a book really about two things.

One is how to gain power,

and that's what the first
half of the book is about,

but the rest of the book

and the real interest for Machiavelli

of why he wrote it is

how do you hold on to
power once you've got it?

- "I find it more fitting to
seek the truth of the matter,

"rather than imaginary conceptions,

"because how one lives

"and how one ought to
live are so far apart

"that a ruler who persists in
doing what ought to be done

"will undermine his power."

- He says, "I'm trying to
write something useful, utile,

"and so what I say in this
book departs massively,"

the Italian says massima,

"it departs massively from
what anyone has ever written

"on this subject."

So he knows that it's
a revolutionary book.

- The intent of the
book was to be a guide,

a kind of handbook for
politically ambitious leaders.

You can play the game for good
or you can play it for ill.

For Machiavelli, it's more
important to play the game well

than to be morally good.

- Chapter 18, Of the Need for
Princes to Keep Their Word.

"Everybody knows how
commendable it is for a ruler

"to keep his word and live by integrity

"rather than by cunning,

"and yet experience shows us

"that rulers with little
regard for their word

"have achieved great things,

"being expert at beguiling men's minds."

- The first generation
who opened this book,

if they came to chapter 18 and read it,

they would have been astounded by this.

In Roman law, there is a maxim which says

good faith must always be kept.

You must always keep your promises.

(speaking in foreign language)

And that chapter was, I think,

the one that gave it its
most sinister reputation.

- "A prince must be a
fox to spot the snares

"and a lion to overwhelm the wolves.

"Those who rely merely
upon the lion's strength

"do not understand this.

"Therefore, a prudent
ruler cannot keep his word,

"nor should he,

"when it would be to his
disadvantage to do so.

"If all men were good,
this rule would not stand.

"But as men are wicked

"and not prepared to
keep their word to you,

"you have no need to
keep your word to them."

- He knew very well the
nature of human beings

and how they behave or not behave.

So he is a man who is used
to being in the world.

- "Those best able to imitate
the fox have succeeded best.

"But foxiness should be well concealed.

"One must be a great
feigner and dissembler.

"A deceiver will always find someone

"willing to be deceived."

- What's interesting about the book,

it's a bit like it says,

"We've inherited an
idea about human nature

"from Christianity and
classical humanism."

And this idea of human nature
is encouraging us to be good.

And what Machiavelli is saying is,

what about if we thought
differently about this?

What about if we thought
that vices and virtues

were things you could use to survive?

- "If a ruler who wants
always to act honorably

"is surrounded by many unscrupulous men,

"his downfall is inevitable.

"Therefore, it is necessary

"for a ruler who wishes
to maintain his position

"to learn how to be able not to be good."

- To any Christian reader
of Machiavelli at the time,

they're going to say,

but you're forgetting the Day of Judgment.

On the Day of Judgment, all
your sins will be revealed

and you will very much
wish that you hadn't

behaved like that.

Now, Machiavelli pays
no attention to that.

That's a huge silence in the book.

It's just not there as a consideration.

The book is predicated on the assumption

that the idea that your
sins will find you out

is a childish superstition,
they will not find you out.

- Machiavelli is saying
something very simply, which is,

these are wonderful pictures,

but they've got nothing
to do with reality.

It's not as though if you're
good, you'll be rewarded,

it's not a deal.

Actually, it doesn't matter
whether you're good or bad

in terms of, it doesn't predict anything.

So what Machiavelli is saying
in contemporary language is,

we need to get real.

- [Alan] This is Jonathan Powell.

He used to be Tony Blair's Chief of Staff.

Now, he's written a memoir

called The New Machiavelli:

How To Wield Power In The Modern World.

- "The choice of advisers is
very important for a prince.

"One can assess their
prince's intelligence

"by looking at the men with
whom he surrounds himself."

- So I'm kind of asking myself

why you called your book
The New Machiavelli?

I mean, what made you do that?

Because a lot of people might have thought

that was a term of abuse.

- Well, I wanted to write a book

that was actually useful to people

who were in government.

There are an awful lot of books of theory,

constitutional books,

most of which are completely useless

because they describe
the way things should be,

rather than the way things are.

What's great about Machiavelli
is, he writes about reality.

He busts myths, he cuts
through all of that.

- The word "Machiavellian"
was used 358 times

by the newspapers in the first
year of Tony Blair's reign.

Somewhere in there, there's a connection.

There are quite a lot of
factors about Machiavelli

which are ones that many
politicians would not

want to own up to.

For instance, chapter 15,

"It is necessary for a prince who wishes

"to maintain his position

"to learn how to be able not to be good."

- Machiavelli was saying not that princes

should go around being evil,

what he was saying is,

you have to check your
personal morality at the door

when you become a leader.

Personal morality is all
very well as an individual,

but if you are thinking about the greater

good of the community,

sometimes you'll have to do things

that are not good as an individual,

but are good for society as a whole.

- "A prince must therefore
be a fox to spot the snares

"and a lion to overwhelm the wolves."

- This is one of Machiavelli's
most interesting lessons.

You must be a lion, a courageous person,

but you also had to be a fox

and have the intelligence
and the guile to avoid traps.

There was an example for Tony Blair

when he was running in the 2005 election.

Tony Blair decided he had to
make a speech on immigration.

- [Newsreader] Tony Blair
said controls on immigration

had already had a positive effect.

- When he finished, I said to him,

I noticed the teleprompter had gone wrong,

because large parts of the speech,

you were looking down at your notes

as opposed to looking at the camera.

What happened?

He said, "There was nothing
wrong with the teleprompter,

"just certain bits of the speech

"I didn't want shown on television,

"so I made sure I was looking at my notes,

"so those bits wouldn't be
used by television news."

That was the fox bit.

- [Alan] Did Tony Blair
ever talk about The Prince?

Did he ever read it, do you think?

- I've no idea if he read it.

He certainly never talked about it.

I think he might be slightly
horrified to be thought of

as a Machiavellian leader,
but I mean it as a compliment.

- [Alan] Robert Greene
has also been bringing

The Prince into the modern world.

He used to work in Hollywood.

Now, he writes bestsellers
like The 48 Laws Of Power.

- The traditional way
of looking at politics

is veiled with all of these concepts

of what's good for the public,

of politicians' intentions,

of being altruistic and generous.

And what Machiavelli did
is take all of that away.

Look at power as it is.

Watch the moves of the various
people on the chessboard.

So, it's pure strategy and
it was absolutely brilliant,

he's the first person to ever
come up with that concept.

There are different types
of political leaders.

There are the types who come
into office with high ideals.

They want to change things,
they want to reform.

They believe that they're doing something

for the good of the public

and then they realize very quickly

that politics is warfare.

And they have to adapt to this environment

and leaders like that,

perhaps Obama would
fit into that category,

can do very well if they're adaptable.

Then you have other types
like a Bill Clinton,

perhaps a Tony Blair,

or if you're Angela Merkel,

these are more political
animals by nature.

They are very Machiavellian,
it's in their DNA.

They don't need to read The Prince,

they understand how the
laws of power operate.

So, if you are in a position of power,

you have to play a game.

The dynamic doesn't matter,

whether it's a dictatorship
or a democracy.

- What The Prince is, in a sense,

is a portrayal of the
attributes and qualities

that you need to take
the power that you have

and develop that power in a
way that is most useful to you

and what you are trying to do.

Well, that is the case
today for Barack Obama,

today for Angela Merkel, David Cameron,

and all the rest of them.

That's partly what they're about,

because we can be very squeamish
about this, if we want,

but the truth is, power is, it is a force.

- Money is the McMansion in Sarasota

that starts falling apart after 10 years.

Power is the old stone building
that stands for centuries.

I cannot respect someone who
doesn't see the difference.

- [Alan] The allure of
power is a big theme

in drama at the moment.

In the hit series House of Cards,

Kevin Spacey plays the
Machiavellian senator,

Frank Underwood.

It's a remake of the earlier series

starring Ian Richardson
as Francis Urquhart,

written by Margaret
Thatcher's Chief of Staff,

Michael Dobbs.

- There's a dramatic thread that runs

all the way from Machiavelli

through Richard III
through Francis Urquhart

and Frank Underwood just talking to you,

letting you in on the secrets of power.

- I think you could achieve
anything you wanted.

- You might think that, Mattie,

I'm afraid I couldn't possibly comment.

- And you think that this is wonderful,

you're being trusted,

you're being made a co-conspirator.

- I'm terribly sorry.

- Thank you, Francis.

You're a good man.

- The Tory Party in
the 1987-88 period when

just before Margaret
Thatcher was pushed out,

which was when I wrote House of Cards,

it was like Florence under the Borgias.

I mean, it was full of
conspiracy in dark corners

and people whispering wicked things.

So it wasn't so much that

I must write something
which is Machiavellian.

I had, I think, lived though a time

and was living though a time

which I think Machiavelli
himself would have recognized.

I think that this particular book of mine

goes back to my university days,

and it's stayed with me ever since.

It's a wonderful book for dipping into.

He's actually saying,
this is the way you do it.

And you could be the most principled

politician on the earth,

but unless you get your fingers on power

and know how to pull the levers,

you're wasting your time.

- [Alan] For centuries, The
Prince has been inspiring

the powerful and the tyrannical.

Napoleon read it.

So did Stalin.

He made notes in the margin.

Mussolini even did his dissertation on it.

It's always been the book of choice

for political operators.

- It's true that The
Prince was the favorite

bedside reading of

Henry Kissinger and Nixon.

And for a good reason,

because they were hard-nosed
political realists.

And part of the fascination of The Prince

is that it shows us what
the world looks like

when the ethical dimensions have been

removed from the picture.

And I think for someone like
Henry Kissinger or Nixon,

there was a certain
pleasure in reading a book

that looked at the world
the same way they did

and the same way many other people do.

- [Alan] Machiavelli is perhaps
most famous for the phrase

"the end justifies the means."

Actually, he never said it.

But he may as well have done.

- The exact thought that's
there in The Prince is,

"the action is accused and
the outcome excuses it."

So in the Italian, it's very beautiful.

It's accusata and scusata.

It accuses you, but it excuses you.

So you are excused if the
motivation for the action

was the good of the state.

- We have to do justice to Machiavelli

because it's not a
matter of personal career

or for just his own sake,

it's also for a political purpose.

He was really convinced that

the stability of government in Florence

was the most important thing to do.

For the sake of the common good,

you have to act in a bad manner.

Just sometimes.

- But if you have to do something
which is really terrible,

then you have to recognize
that it's really terrible.

But you still have to do it.

- I want them dead, mother and child both.

And that fool Viserys as well.

Is that plain enough for you?

I want them both dead.

- You'll dishonor yourself
for ever if you do this.

- Honor?

I've got seven kingdoms to rule!

- It's tough to be a ruler,

whether in Machiavelli's time or today.

- George R.R. Martin understands
the burden of command.

This is your chair.

This is your throne.

- [George] My throne?

- [Alan] He's the best-selling author

behind the TV series Game of Thrones,

set in an imaginary world
of warring kingdoms.

- Game of Thrones is a fantasy, of course.

I think a lot of the fantasy
that had gone before me

has this unspoken assumption

that if you are a good man,

you will be a good king or a good prince.

But if you look at the real world,

if you look at real history,

or if you look at contemporary times,

it's not enough just to
be a good guy, you know.

I read The Prince back in college,

which was, of course, many years ago.

And obviously, I absorbed
quite a few of its lessons.

- It is a terrible thing we must consider,

a vile thing, yet we who presume to rule

must sometimes do vile things

for the good of the realm.

- It's not enough just to say

I will be good and wise

and do the right thing.

What is the right thing?

That's the question.

- [Alan] Don't Be Evil.

That's what Google say is the right thing.

But isn't it precisely these user-friendly

global corporations

that are the modern day Machiavellians?

- Corporatism presents
a much more pleasant

face to the world,

but in that sense it may
be even more Machiavellian,

because it's smiling at us.

Is it benign?

I don't know.

Is it benign?

But it's certainly subtle.

- The motto of Google is don't be evil.

But don't look at the words,
look at their actions.

The data they are
gathering on individuals,

the global presence they have.

But in order to exercise
power in the world,

you have to give the appearance
of being nice and good.

If you look to be too ambitious for power,

people are gonna see that,

they're not gonna to like it.

The public wants to feel

that you are motivated by
some higher aspiration.

So you have to manage appearances.

And all of these companies
play the game like that.

- The mission of the
company is to make the world

more open and connected.

Everyone's gonna have a
much better experience

when they're doing different
things with their friends.

- "When ones sees him,

"a ruler must be a paragon of mercy,

"loyalty, humanness,
integrity and scrupulousness.

"Indeed, there is nothing more important

"than appearing to have this last quality.

"For the common people are impressed

"by appearances and results."

- Machiavelli is the first person ever

to analyze that phenomenon.

I think we're living in a period now

that's remarkably similar
to what Machiavelli

was living through.

- [Alan] And it's not just
with global tech companies

that appearances matter.

Machiavelli's rule applies everywhere,

not least, as Robert Greene
found out, in Hollywood.

- If you go into a meeting
and you give off confidence,

like you could pull this off,

like you can see it
all the way to the end,

that you know what you're doing,

you're gonna go a lot further

than somebody who might
have a brilliant idea,

but doesn't know how to pitch it as well.

I know, for example,

that I made that mistake
recently in a meeting,

that we didn't exude that
insane sense of confidence

that we were gonna get this project done.

So it's a realm of appearances, basically.

- [Alan] But for Machiavelli,

no one who wants to succeed
in the game of power

can escape one key factor.

Luck.

Fortuna, he calls it, that
capricious turn of the wheel

by which the ambitious rise and fall,

and never more so than in politics.

- What does it mean to be
able to make your fortune?

It is to have the
qualities that enable you

to dominate luck.

So wow can you hope to dominate luck?

Well, in the end, you can't.

Fortune is always more
powerful than reason.

But there are qualities that enable you,

as the excellent American
phrase puts it, to get lucky.

But, of course, you
could, as a politician,

simply have an amazing stroke of luck

from which everything follows.

And Tony Blair would certainly
be an example of that.

- [Man] The body of John Smith was carried

into the parish...

- John Smith, who was
Leader of the Opposition,

dies very suddenly in his mid-fifties.

So Blair becomes Leader of the
Opposition at the age of 41,

when he had no expectation of the leader

dying in the mid-fifties.

People don't die in their mid-fifties.

But John Smith did.

- This morning, I'm
announcing my candidature

for the position of Leader
of the Labour Party.

- Now there's no successful politician

who hasn't, at some
point, had pure good luck.

And Tony Blair's pure good
luck, terrible thing to say,

but was the death of John Smith.

Surely he would have won that election,

so he would have been Prime Minister.

But instead, it was Blair.

- A new dawn has broken, has it not?

(crowd cheering)

- He had the Fortuna, he had
the luck, and he grabbed it.

He had the opportunity to become
Leader of the Labour Party

when John Smith died, and he grabbed it.

And he made something of it.

So I think he was a classically
Machiavellian leader,

from that point of view.

- [Alan] For Machiavelli, the
flip side of Fortuna is Virtu.

He doesn't mean virtue, of course,

he means a kind of virtuosity.

- In Latin, the word for a man is vir,

the source of our word virile.

It's this principle of manliness,

of courage, of prudence,

of knowing how to master fortune.

So that's what virtue is, because
if you can master fortune,

you can maintain your state
and thereby gain glory.

- "This raises the question
of whether it is better

"to be loved than feared.

"My reply is that one
would like to be both,

"but as it is difficult
to combine love and fear,

"it is far safer to be feared,

"because it can be said of men

"that they're ungrateful,
fickle liars and deceivers.

"They shun danger and
are greedy for profit."

- He recommends fear over love.

Of course, he says it's better to be both,

but if you have to choose between the two,

it's better to be feared.

- "The bond of love is one that men break

"when it is to their advantage to do so,

"but fear is strengthened
by the dread of punishment,

"which is always effective."

- Fear is something that you can rely on

as a very stable sort
of emotional foundation

to build your power on.

Machiavelli was all about power,

of the Prince or of the state.

- This is a remarkable
moment in The Prince

because it's the only moment

when he really generalizes
about human nature.

He says that most people are
fickle, you can't trust them.

They are going to do everything

that is in their own interest

and not in your interest.

So what would be the point of trying to

bind them to you by affection?

They'll simply sell you down the river.

You've got to make them frightened.

- "If one has to choose between them,

"it is far safer to be feared than loved."

- Very true of politicians now.

If you think about politicians,

you can be absolutely
beloved of your party.

Neil Kinnock was beloved
of the Labour Party.

Every time he went through
a Prime Minister's question

or was bashed to pieces by Mrs. Thatcher,

the whole Labour Party suffered with him.

But he could never be elected because

he didn't have that aspect of fear.

Mrs. Thatcher was never
much liked by her troops,

she was feared and respected.

So she was someone who was
feared rather than loved.

Machiavelli says the point is

that being loved is a
reciprocal relationship.

The person can stop loving you,

whereas fear is a one-way thing.

They can't stop fearing you

as long as you have the
means to make them fear.

- Through it all, the fear point

is really, really important.

When the leader goes into a gathering,

there has to be a sense that that person

is the main event in
that room at that time.

Now they can emanate all sorts of charm

and niceness and all the rest of it,

but, you know, look at what happens

within our political system

in the run-up to a re-shuffle.

I can remember the very first
time he did a re-shuffle.

I mean, he wasn't quite physically sick,

but he wasn't far off it.

He absolutely hated it.

And he definitely got
tougher as time went on.

- Out went Charles Clarke,
after so many bad headlines...

- Come the last re-shuffle that I was,

as it were, directly involved in,

once he'd done the big beasts,

and done them all face-to-face,

he kind of had a list of
people that he did by phone.

And was pretty swift about it as well.

Look, you've probably heard
I'm doing a re-shuffle

and I'm afraid I'm going
to have to ask for your job

because we need to make some changes.

And um, well, there we are.

- [Alan] Is it useful that
they feel slightly fearful?

- I think if leaders are being really,

really honest about it,

I think that is quite useful at times.

- The ruler needs to be
able to intimidate people,

for lack of a better word,

needs to be able, well, in extreme cases

like Renaissance Italy,
to execute his enemies.

In modern times, it would
be more to fire people.

- [Alan] For Machiavelli,

not even the most loyal
servant should be spared.

If you have to get rid of
them to maintain power,

then they must go.

- Better to be feared than loved.

I would say that to be feared

is far better than to be loved.

There has to be, between
an employer and employee,

a tiny little bit of fear.

But I certainly don't need to be loved

by anybody in business.

- [Man] These are the Dragons.

Five of Britain's wealthiest

and most enterprising business leaders.

- [Alan] Multimillionaire businesswoman

and former Dragon Hilary Devey

first read The Prince
when she was at school.

16th century political analysis
may have felt like a chore

but it's certainly left its mark.

- Let's face it, for a 15-year-old,

even for a 50-year-old,

it's heavy going, it's a hard read.

Because it's very thought-provoking,

which is what it's meant to be.

I think I can bring a lot to the party.

I've a lot of access into major retailers.

So I'll offer you the full 70,000.

But I'd like 20%.

If you actually watch Dragons' Den,

it couldn't be more
Machiavellian if it tried.

And if you look at each
one of the Dragons,

every single one of them has something

Machiavellian about them.

- I'll offer you 70,000 pound

for 10% of the company.

- I simply couldn't believe
how Machiavellian they were.

And it took me a little while,

perhaps a month, six weeks,

to finally understand what the strategy,

what the game plan was.

And once I did, of course,

I joined in and I became one of them.

- [Man] Only Hilary Devey remains.

Will she see an opportunity
where her rivals have not?

- If I was to offer you the 50,000 pound

for 95% of your company,

what would you say?

I think it is an important book.

And I think his principles are the same

principles as mine, in a way,

where I say the only difference
between me and Machiavelli

is that I make a commercial decision.

And I will take whatever amount of

compassion is required out
of that commercial decision.

But what I will then do
is put compassion back in.

So I'm having to do this because XYZ,

now how can I help you?

- Chapter 19.

How to avoid contempt and hatred.

"Princes must delegate
difficult tasks to others

"and keep popular ones for themselves."

- The Prince must never be hated.

If you're hated then
you'll lose your state

because there will be some good reason

why the people hate you
and they wont tolerate it.

Now how can you avoid being hated

if terrible things have to be done?

Well one of Machiavelli's
pieces of advice is to say

you must appoint a deputy
and you must get him

to do the dirty work.

- [Alan] To make his point,

Machiavelli tells a story
about Cesare Borgia.

We think of Borgia as a
blood-thirsty monster.

To Machiavelli, he was a hero.

The story begins in Cesena in
the Romagna district of Italy.

Borgia wants to take over the area

so he sends in his minister Romero d'Orco,

a man with a ruthless reputation.

- Borgia sends him in
to Romagna to pacify it.

He does so by means of unspeakable cruelty

and there is a threat of a rising.

- Borgia was aware that d'Orco had created

hatred among the people

and in order to win them over,

he decided to make it clear that

if there had been any cruelty

it had been triggered
by d'Orco and not him.

- And so what happens is,

Machiavelli says, in wonderfully
level piece of prose,

he says that one morning
Romero d'Orco was found

in the square of Cesena in two pieces.

(dramatic music)

- He had d'Orco placed in two pieces

with a block of wood and
blood-stained knife by his side.

This terrible spectacle left the people

both satisfied and stupefied.

- I mean, they thought, wow,
well he can do anything.

The hated figure was gone,

Borgia was in no way to blame.

So always put a second in
command to do your dirty work.

- Putting that dismembered
body on a block, what is that?

It's not only just saying
that I executed that man,

but it's almost like a ritual
murder, almost mafia-like.

And it's there to inspire awe
and respect and admiration

for the man who did it.

To see a leader who's not only killed him,

but put him there so everyone
could see as a lesson.

My God, it has a triple
effect on public opinion.

Political leaders have been using

this strategy for centuries

without the blood.

So FDR had his henchmen,
Clinton had his henchmen.

Tony Blair had it,

Cameron has Osborne.

On and on and on and on.

You've got somebody there
to do the dirty work,

and then you can distance
yourself from them.

So the sort of violent example is actually

something that goes on
every day around us.

- [Alan] Maybe that's why The
Prince feels so contemporary.

The rules of power, it seems,

are just as applicable today
as they were 500 years ago.

Originally a manual for the Medici,

The Prince could just as easily

be a modern self-help book.

- We tend to think of power only in terms

of politics or business,

but really there's the power to control

your destiny, your life,

how you are in your office.

If you have no control over your career,

if you have no influence
over your colleagues

or peers or your boss,

it's the most miserable
feeling in the world.

And nobody wants that
kind of position in life.

So everybody is scrambling
to get more power,

more control, over their
individual destiny.

- I taught college once at a tiny little

Catholic girls' college in Dubuque, Iowa.

And...

The power struggles on an academic level

at this little thing were as vicious

as anything in medieval Florence of

who will get to be department chairman

and wield that vast power.

It's all in the context of what you're in.

- It's sort of like once
you enter the boxing ring,

you have to fight, you can't
sit there and just lie down.

You're gonna get beaten up.

So once you're there, you
have to figure out a strategy.

If you don't want to get hit,

you have to at least figure
out how to avoid getting hit.

So there's no way to opt out.

But a lot of people are
uncomfortable with it

and they play a kind of
a negative game of power.

They say that they find
power ugly and disgusting

and power people are
antisocial, et cetera.

The ones that say they're
not interested in power

are often the most dangerous types.

I would say that The
Prince is more relevant now

than it almost ever has been.

And that he was ahead of his time,

he was 500 years ahead of his time.

And that this book is absolutely

the perfect template for how to survive

and thrive in the world that's coming up.

(explosion booming)

- [Alan] Using The Prince
as a guide to warfare

may sound a bit extreme,

but that's exactly what
Colonel Tim Collins

did when he was in Iraq.

Collins is famous for the rousing speech

he made on the eve of battle,

later recreated in a short
film starring Kenneth Branagh.

- Now there are some who
are alive at this moment

who will not be alive shortly.

Those of them who do not
wish to go on that journey,

we will not send them.

As for the others...

- [Alan] What is less known
is that, while he was in Iraq,

Collins kept a copy of The
Prince with him at all times.

- In Iraq, I kept dipping into it.

I carried it around in my map pocket

and I would take it out and read it.

I would study to find out what it was

he was specifically saying about

what will cause populations to hate you.

Because here's the headline news,

what would have got
you hated 500 years ago

is what's gonna get you hated today.

So it's worth studying it
to what it is he's saying.

This is the book I had with me in Iraq.

And it's pretty fragile now because

it literally has been through the wars.

And the sand still falls out of it.

If you read Machiavelli,

you realize at the end of the day

what you've got to do is the right thing.

So, if you are in an occupied village,

we could organize a football match

and give out bars of soap.

Or we could have a curfew and tell you,

the first person I catch
with a weapon is a dead man,

and I want all weapons handed in tomorrow.

And after that, anybody
caught with one is a dead man.

And then get all the weapons handed in.

And once all the weapons
are out of the way

and they fear your very shadow,

then we can have a football match.

- [Alan] And do you think, as a manual,

that this had lessons for you?

- Absolutely.

I mean, he is spot on throughout.

I think that all he's
saying ultimately is,

for good or for ill, this is what works.

So, on that basis, I
think he's the good guy.

What he described was what he saw.

And he did it so accurately

that here we are centuries
later still reading it

and still observing it
in our everyday lives.

- Chapter Three.

"It should be observed
here that men should

"either be caressed or crushed

"because they can avenge slight injuries

"but not those that are very severe."

- What Machiavelli would say is that,

if you decide to do something,

you go through with it to the end.

And that means not to spatter your enemy,

to crush your enemy.

Cause him to cease to exist.

That way you're certain there can be no

comeback on you or your people.

- The crush-your-enemy dynamic

is something that Machiavelli

discovered as a law of power.

And it's timeless.

And it exists in warfare and
it totally exists in business.

The classic example was the war

between Microsoft and
Netscape in the 1990s,

in which Netscape was one
of the hottest things around

and Microsoft completely crushed Netscape.

It doesn't exist anymore.

- Internet wars, Microsoft vs. Netscape,

Goliath takes on David.

- [Robert] You find the
same thing with Google.

Every time there is a possible competitor,

they go out and buy them out.

Like YouTube, etc.

- [Alan] Google buys YouTube.

- [Robert] You look at it with Amazon.

On and on down the line,

it's the dynamic in business
where you need to consume

the various rivals in your path.

- "It can be said of men
that they are ungrateful,

"fickle liars and deceivers.

"They shun danger and
are greedy for profit."

- [Alan] I keep coming back to
these lines from The Prince.

Is this what people are really like?

Are we all ungrateful,
fickle liars and deceivers?

The Machiavelli Test is
an attempt to answer that.

It was developed by
psychologists in the 1960s.

20 questions tap into our
Machiavellian instincts.

You end up with a score
that tells you whether

you're a high Mac or a low Mac.

Now this is something I can't resist.

- Alan, in this test
there are 20 statements.

I want you to indicate the extent to which

you agree or disagree with each statement.

I want you to answer as
truthfully as you can.

Answer one if you strongly
disagree with the statement,

two if you disagree,

three if you are neutral,

four if you agree,

and five if you strongly agree.

Okay?

Number one.

Never tell anyone the real
reason you did something

unless it is useful to do so.

- Two.

- The best way to handle
people is to tell them

what they want to hear.

- Three.

- It is hard to get ahead
without cutting corners.

- Four.

- It is wise to flatter important people.

- Four.

Since its conception, there've
been around 1,400 studies

that have used the Machiavelli Test.

So what do the results tell us?

- One of the most consistent findings

to come out of our studies

is that men are more
Machiavellian than women.

Not by a great deal,

but they come out consistently more

Machiavellian than women.

Machiavellianism tends
to peak in adolescence.

And another interesting finding
to come from the studies

is that it doesn't matter what

your political orientation is.

That is, right wingers and left wingers

don't differ in Machiavellianism.

You might tend to think
that perhaps right wingers

are perhaps a little
bit more Machiavellian.

They're not.

- So how did I do?

- Well, Alan, I suppose it's good news.

You came out with a mean score
of 2.95 on these questions.

Which means that you're neutral.

Or just tending to disagree

with the Machiavellian questions.

That makes you somewhat less Machiavellian

than the average person.

- But if I were truly Machiavellian,

I would probably be lying, wouldn't I?

- [Man] You probably would in this setting

because you're filming a documentary

and your responses are
going out to the nation.

But if you were an anonymous research...

- [Alan] I'm still not sure
what to make of Machiavelli.

Is The Prince a manual for
tyrants, devoid of all morality,

or is it a realistic guide to life?

Is Machiavelli a goodie or a baddie?

- It seems to me that he holds
a place as a cultural icon.

He's a baddie.

Whereas actually the book is about

the exposure of the nature
of badness and goodness.

It says, we need to think
of morality as a toolkit.

Vices and virtues are artifacts
we've invented to survive.

- [Alan] Is it a sort of
realistic view of human nature,

and not just of human nature,

but the journey that we all have to make?

- Well, yes, it could be.

But it could be a realistic
view of human nature

after you've lost belief
in love and kindness.

But you could put it the
other way round and think

that what's being said is,

if virtue isn't necessarily
rewarded, why be virtuous?

Which is a good question.

And the answer would be something like,

well, virtue is good in and of itself.

It's better to be kind than to be cruel.

Not because you'll do better in life,

but because it's better to
be kind than to be cruel.

- I'm keen on the thought that
Machiavelli is a moralist,

he's just not a kind of
moralist whom I admire.

He is someone who thinks that
the quality of your actions

is to be judged in terms
of their consequences.

That allows him this great
leeway for saying, well,

it's necessary for the goal,

which is a good one, for you to do evil.

And don't worry about the fact
that you have done something

which is unjust if you are
certain that if you didn't do it

it would have affected the security

and the well-being of the state.

Because your job is to maintain that.

And the point is, you've got to maintain

that whatever happens.

That's the horrible
thing about Machiavelli.

I mean, let's be clear.

This is, I think, a horrible book.

I mean it's a horrible
book because it says,

don't worry about the virtues,

just worry about consequences.

Your job is to keep people secure.

Do whatever is necessary.

Well, if you think about
the implications of that,

they're pretty appalling.

- I also think there's a despair in this.

Because the fundamental despair
in it is the assumption that

people don't want to
collaborate with each other.

That people don't want
to look after each other.

You can imagine it also as a book written

in the aftermath of a trauma.

And in a way, of course, he was in prison.

So there was a trauma.

You could think Machiavelli
is very disillusioned

about a lot of things.

So it's a bit like he's
saying, once you lose heart,

once you lose belief in human
goodness and collaboration

and kindness and love,

this is what the world
is going to look like.

And more and more of us
are gonna have experiences

in which we feel disillusioned,

so we need to wise up to this.

("Made Niggaz" by Tupac Shakur)

- [Alan] This is Tupac Shakur.

He'd been huge fan of Machiavelli

before he was gunned down 1996.

When was in prison,

he studied The Prince and when he got out

he changed his name to Makaveli.

And made videos like this.

♫ Makaveli the Don till I'm gone

- [Alan] More recently, the rapper 50 Cent

wrote a book with Robert Greene

called The 50th Law,

a Machiavellian bible for success

based on the single
principal, fear nothing.

- There is not a single more
Machiavellian environment

than the music industry on this planet.

It makes Hollywood look like kindergarten.

It is ruthless.

It's Game of Thrones times five.

And so someone like 50,
he said it helped him.

It helped him negotiate this
shark-infested environment.

Power is a neutral term.

It can be used for bad and
it can be used for good.

It's like a tool.

- [Alan] Apart from Tupac and 50 Cent,

who else these days
measures up to Machiavelli?

Who would Machiavelli approve of?

- Well, a lot of what Machiavelli is about

is about being strategic,

about trying to think
in a longer term frame.

So if you think about
someone like Alex Ferguson

of Manchester United,

he was clearly as strategic manager.

He wasn't trying to think
about the next match,

he was thinking on a
much longer time frame.

I think someone like that would be

an unconscious Machiavellian.

- I would say that the most person

certainly in my lifetime

that I would resemble to Machiavelli

would be Margaret Thatcher.

She certainly wasn't loved by her Cabinet.

But she was certainly feared.

- I think if you're looking
for a very good example

of an institution that has applied well

some of the lessons and the
principles in The Prince,

you'll find them in the Royal Family.

I mean, there was a period when

actually the sense of the royal brand,

if you like, was becoming quite negative.

Well, they've seen that off.

Big time.

And I think they've seen it off, in part,

by operating some of these

timeless principles that
are set out in The Prince.

But in very a modern context.

- [Alan] The Prince may anticipate a world

five centuries into the future,

but what happened to the book itself?

It was published in 1532

and not surprisingly the Pope banned it.

- The Papal Index is set up in 1559.

It's simply an alphabetical list of books

which you mustn't read.

They are mostly Lutheran
and Calvinist books,

works of deep heresy according
to the Catholic Church.

But some secular writers are in there,

and Nicholas Machiavelli is in there

under the heading "all his
works are totally banned."

- [Alan] But that didn't stop The Prince

from reaching England

and cementing Niccolo Machiavelli's

reputation as Old Nick - the devil.

- England was the country that really

played the biggest role

in spreading this idea
that this man was satanic.

(grunting)

- [Alan] Shakespeare doesn't exactly help,

as Machiavelli's name is evoked by

the scheming Duke of Gloucester,

the future Richard III.

- I can add colors to the Chameleon,

change shapes with Proteus for advantages

and set the murderous Machiavel to school.

- [Alan] We may have inherited
this idea of Machiavelli

as the devil, but that's
not what the Italians think.

In Florence, his statue
stands outside the Uffizi

alongside the Italian greats.

The Prince is even a set text in schools.

- If you think for
instance that it's one of

the three Italian books

translated all over the world,

in almost all language in the world.

And the other ones are Dante's, of course,

comedy of Dante, and Pinocchio by Collodi.

So The Prince, Pinocchio and Dante,

the three most translated books.

This is something, don't
you know? (laughing)

- [Alan] And there's another reason

why Machiavelli is admired.

Ultimately, he was in favor of republics

rather than inherited rule.

- He distinguishes between an
old prince and a new prince.

Old princes are people who
have inherited their position.

But then there's the new prince
who rises from the bottom.

He's completely on the
side of the new prince

because he believes that the new prince

can only rise to the top
with their own energy.

- Now one of the interesting
things about The Prince is

it's got an irony attached to it.

It's saying, if you
want to hold onto power,

this is how to behave.

But we can all read it.

So it's a book about trickery
which exposes the tricks.

- Here are some different
translations of The Prince.

We really received them from
the many visitors coming here.

We have French, from the Republica Czecha,

in Norwegian,

from Oslo, in German,

Korean, Russian.

A doctor from Israel sent us this.

Chinese.

This we received from Belgrade.

Polish, Japanese,

Finnish, Turkish,

Argentina, Norwegian,

and English of course.

And this is his land,

his vineyards, his olive trees,

his property.

- [Alan] Today
Machiavelli's house is owned

by a wine company.

Across the road, you can order a Chianti

from Machiavelli's vineyard.

Here's to The Prince.

- Okay.

(glasses clinking)

Now tell me,

do many people come here to
visit the home of Machiavelli?

- [Lucia] Yes, from all over the world.

Many years ago, came Tony Blair also.

- Really?

- [Lucia] Really.

- When did he come here?

- [Lucia] He came in 1998.

- [Alan] So just a year
after he came to power.

- [Lucia] Yeah, mmm-hmm.

- [Alan] Did you take him round the house?

- Si, we went around, and we gave him,

of course, a copy of The Prince.

- Did you really?

- Yeah.

- In Italian or English?

- In Italian.

- [Alan] But what happened
to Machiavelli himself?

The whole of the point of
writing The Prince was to get

noticed by the most
powerful man in Florence.

But Machiavelli totally failed.

As far as we know,

Lorenzo the Magnificent never even read it

and Machiavelli never got his job back.

He ended up here on his estate,

drinking wine and writing books and plays.

- In many ways, Machiavelli was a failure.

Because he gave advice that other people

could never be seen to be taking.

It may well have been very
useful to other people,

but the last thing they could do,

according to his own tenets in the book,

is show that they were taking his advice.

- [Alan] The biggest
irony in this whole story

is that Machiavelli himself

didn't appear to be in the
least bit Machiavellian.

In a letter to a friend,
Machiavelli once wrote:

"When evening comes I go back home.

"I take off my work clothes

"and put on the clothes of an ambassador.

"I enter the ancient courts of rulers.

"I forget every worry.

"I'm no longer afraid of poverty

"or frightened of death.

"I live entirely through them."

Machiavelli died in 1527 at the age of 58,

five years before The
Prince was published.

Little did he know that 500 years later

what he called his "little
pamphlet" would remain

one of the most influential
books ever written.

♫ Makaveli the Don, till I'm gone

♫ I maintain my army

♫ Of lunatics that stay armed

♫ Till the day I die

- [Woman] Alan.

Alan.

What about the BBC?

Surely that's a Machiavellian institution?

- You may think that but I
couldn't possibly comment.

♫ My life in exchange for yours

♫ Born hated as a thug

♫ House full of babies cryin'

♫ From a lack of gettin' love

♫ Ain't nobody tell me shit

♫ 'Til I got a sack of drugs

♫ Had the block sewn up

♫ 'Cause I learned to pack a gun

♫ Do you feel me