Machiavelli's Reputation For Generosity

A vital component of Machiavelli's system of morality is that it is necessary for a ruler to occasionally “make exception to being good” (Machiavelli, 55). This means that sometimes a ruler must take on certain actions that are not necessarily considered “good” in order to maintain and extend his power. Despite occasionally making exceptions to being good it is still crucial for a ruler to be viewed as virtuous to his people. The ruler does not necessarily have to actually act virtuously to be viewed as virtuous. In fact, acting virtuously for the sake of virtue and not power can prove as detrimental to the principality. All actions the ruler takes must be considered in light of its effect on the principality, not in terms of the intrinsic
Machiavelli recognizes that “it would be good to be thought generous; nevertheless, if you act in the way that will get you a reputation for generosity, you will do yourself damage.” (Machiavelli, 49) If a ruler is viewed as being generous then the people are going to expect constant generosity out of the ruler and will not appreciate the rulers generosity. It is impossible for a ruler to maintain a reputation for generosity forever because “a ruler who pursues a reputation for generosity will always end up wasting all his resources” (Machiavelli, 49). Once the ruler no longer has resources to be generous, the people will begin to view him as a miser because he is no longer being as generous as he once was. This is all because the ruler set the bar of expectation for the people so high where they expected constant lavish generosity from their ruler. The alternative to this and the preferable option is where the ruler sets the bar of expectation of his people low to begin with. Eventually, the people will recognize that as a result of the ruler's miserliness “he is able to live on his income, maintain an adequate army and undertake initiatives without imposing new taxes.” (Machiavelli, 49) The people will appreciate this and view the ruler as generous because he does not impose large taxes on them as some rulers do. A ruler should not care about being viewed as miser because in the long
Machiavelli provides a general rule to any new ruler and that is that “People should either be caressed or crushed” (Machiavelli, 9). If a new ruler makes an exception to being good and crushes a group of people then he will not have to worry about the retaliation from those people because they will be crippled in a way where they are no longer able to seek revenge. A new ruler has not yet established his power and, therefore, must endure many dangers to his power. Machiavelli states that “he who is new to power cannot escape a reputation for cruelty, for he is surrounded by dangers” (Machiavelli, 51). The new ruler must earn some type of reputation for being feared so that that his people and other principalities are not constantly plotting to overthrow. This does not mean that the ruler should make exceptions to being good all the time. There must be a balance between actions that are “good” and “bad” so that the ruler is not hated by his