BOOK REVIEW

Akani, E. C. (2019) Machiavelli’s Political Theory and Leadership in Nigeria. Port Harcourt: Pearl Publishers International Ltd. 283 pp. Price: Not stated

Abstract

This book deals with political philosophy and leadership. The author does this through the prism of the Florentine political philosopher, Niccolo Machiavelli. The latter’s philosophy is largely articulated in The Prince and The Discourses. The Prince is a systematic discourse on power, its nature, and the mechanism of its acquisition and preservation. Dedicated to the Medici family in Florence, arises contextually from the bowels of Renaissance Europe where a decentred and tumultuous Italy was at the epicentre of papal dominance. The Prince made up of twenty-six succinct chapters, discusses the principalities and states of Europe, types of military formation, and the role of the prince in the armed enterprise. It further discusses the character and behaviour of the prince drawing generously from historical personages like Cesare Borgia, King Ferdinand, King Charles VIII, and King Louis the XII among others. In the words of Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey, “Machiavelli is not concerned with how men do live merely in order to describe it; his intention is rather, on the basis of knowledge of how men do live, to teach princes how they ought to rule and even how they ought to live.” The Discourses is more or less a re-reading of the history of Rome. As “moral-political teaching”, its importance lies in its thesis on republics. To again quote Strauss and Cropsey, “… the Discourses state powerfully the case for republics while also instructing potential tyrants in how to destroy republican life. Yet there can hardly be any doubt that Machiavelli preferred republics to monarchies, tyrannical or non-tyrannical. He loathed oppression which is not in the service of the wellbeing of the people and hence of effective government, especially of impartial and unsqueamish punitive justice”.