The Prince Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince examines the nature of power and his views of power are still somewhat in existence today. Machiavelli discusses two distinct groups of people, the political elite, including nobles and other princes, and the general public. Today in the United States, the first group, the political elite, includes political leaders, religious leaders, business leaders and the leaders of strong lobbying groups. The composition of the general public has changed little …showed first 75 words of 1035 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1035 total…should be handles as he describes in The Prince can still be used to examine the present. While it's possible to see only the negative uses of power, one can also see the potential for power to promote the common good. Machiavelli would argue that attending to the common good is in a prince's best interests, since it gains the support of the people, something more valuable than any fortress or other expression of power.