Machiavelli's Leadership Theory?

Question:Can somebody please sum up Machiavelli's theory on leadership? I need to relate his theories with how Richard III rules England. Thanks!

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Can somebody please sum up Machiavelli's theory on leadership? I need to relate his theories with how Richard III rules England. Thanks!

According to Niccolo Machiavelli in his 'First Ten Discourses of Titus Livy', a goverment goes through a tripartite procession. The first is a despotism or tyranny in which one person declare himself Basileus, Porphyrogennetus and Autokrater with absolute power over the autochthonous. An example would include the Late Byzantine Empire of the rule of the Sebastokraters which included the Kingdom of Nicaea: 1204-1261, Kingdom of Thessalonica: 1204-1261, Kingdom of Trebizond: 1204-1461, Latin Empire: 1204-1261, Despotate of Epirus: 1205-1479, Despotate of Morea: 1205-1479 and the Tauric Chersonesus. The second part is when the despotism is overthrown, an oligarchy is set up that professes to support the common rabble. This, however, is mendacious and the oligarchy with its hubris and lack of sophrosyne, and intense kerdomeletia, becomes corrupt. This in turn collapses resulting in the third part which is a democracy. However, with too much autonomy for the rabble, and the rise of demagogues, kleptocracy is loose and anarchy ensues until its becomes a polysyndeton. Niccolo Machiavelli based this work on Plato's 'The Republic' which states:

there is a tetrarchotomous form of government:

A) A timocracy or a government of participants who love honor. However, the participants of this type of government are soon possessed by the desire of wealth and prestige. (kerdomeletia)

B) An oligarchy consists of the rule of a few who possess wealth. There are tensions between the four classes or appellations: pentacosiomedimnoi, hippeis, zeugitai and thetes, as established by Solon after the tyranny of Pisistratus in Athens.

C) In a democracy the penurious overthrow the affluent and grant liberties and autonomy to the oppressed. Soon, however, a demagogue sways the rabble and seizes power.

D) Tyranny or Despotism is where a single person has complete hegemony and suzerainty over the autochthonous, in which they are obsequious to his will and entelechies.
(Despotism originally did not connotate a harsh reign, just a one-man rule as established by Manuel I Komnenos: 1143-1180 CE on 1168 CE to a Sebastokrater to rule a despotate.)

According to Niccolo Machiavelli's 'The Life of Castruccio Castracani of Lucca':

During the Great Italian Wars: 1494-1559 CE, for example, the first-rate powers were Piedmont-Sardinia, the Visconti Milanese, the Venetian thalassocracy, the Florentine Synhedrion and its symmachias of Lucca, Pisa, Pistoia, Volterra and Luni, excluding under the suzerainty of Castruccio Castracani of Lucca who subjugated the Florentines at Fucecchio: 1325 CE, Altopascio: 1325 CE and Carmignano: 1326 CE, with 20,231 Florentines dead as opposed to 1,570 Pisans and Luccans dead. The Spanish Habsburg empire held 2,204 soldiers in Lombardy, 3,194 soldiers Naples, 1,641 soldiers in Sicily and 1,756 soldiers in Sardinia. This was the ageof the horse, pike and shot from 1477-1559 CE. The main contingents consisted of the colunella or tercio or a conglomeration of 60% pikemen, 30% harquebusiers and 10% halberdiers. From 1586 CE, 1587 CE, 1587 CE, 1596 CE and 1597 CE, these phalangiarchies were composed of 150 soldiers, 150 soldiers, 200 soldiers, 135 soldiers and then 113 soldiers in each regiment. This related to the three arms theory of horse, pike and shot. This book was about that the leader should be puissant and belliferous, that for the state to rise subjugation is necessary for an aetataureate or a Golden Age to occur.

This was a general overvew of Niccolo Machiavelli's Leadership Theory.

Well one of his theories was, was it better to be feared or loved as a leader.