Iraq Under the Reign of Machiavelli\'s Prince

Iraq under the reign of Machiavelli's Prince and Socrates' Golden Guardian

"Insurgent groups in Iraq warn that democracy could lead to passing un-Islamic laws, such as permitting homosexual marriage, if the majority of people agreed to it. 'Democracy is a Greek work meaning the rule of the people, which means that the people do what they see fit. This concept is considered apostasy (abandoning what one believed in) and defies the belief in one God-Muslim's doctrine." (San Francisco Chronicle, 31 December 2004, A3).

Machiavelli's advice regarding the conflict between the Iraqi insurgents and President Bush would be explicit, regarding the governance of Iraq -- do not leave governance up to the democratic will of the people, for this will only stimulate chaos and revolt and allow minority clerics to stimulate discontent amongst fundamentalist sympathizers in Iraq. Instead, install a New, pragmatically governing Prince who will neither rule by majority rule, passing apostate laws to discomfort the populace, but who will not be unduly influenced by the political desires of clerics to dominate the government. (A heredity prince would be impossible in this situation, given that Iraq does not have an extant royal monarchy.)

Machiavelli would see a democratically elected, Constitutional Prince as anathema and unwise in this situation. In Chapter V of The Prince, he specifically denotes what should be done concerning the governance of "those states which have been acquired," as Iraq has, through warfare and occupation. For states unlike Iraq, that "have been accustomed to live under their own laws and in freedom," such states should be allowed to remain free and constitutionally governed. "Because such a government, being created by the prince, knows that it cannot stand without his friendship and interest, and does its utmost to support him; and therefore he who would keep a city accustomed to freedom will hold it more easily by the means of its own citizens than in any other way." But this is not the case in Iraq, as is clear by the violence of the previous regime and also by the vehemence of a substantial minority of the populace against democratic rights. Machiavelli would see Iraq as a land accustomed to subjugation and tyranny. Machiavelli would feel that allowing freedom to reign would not result in national pluralism and regional peace in the Middle East, but merely the ascension of fundamentalist clerics to power in Iraq through the democratic process. This would allow the clerics to simply and subsequently destroy democracy and promote an ideology hostile to America -- to the Constitutionally elected, occupying 'Prince' George Bush of America.

Machiavelli would thus see it foolish for George Bush, to his own interests, to create a Constitutional democracy that would self-destruct and endanger his own power. He would also see it as foolish, from the perspective of any Iraqi faction, to adopt a Constitutional Prince or President, rather a new and more benign autocrat should old sway, for in contrast, as he continues in Chapter 5,"when cities or countries are accustomed to live under a prince," or a tyranny such as Hussein, "and his family is exterminated," as has transpired in Iraq, the populace, "being on the one hand accustomed to obey and on the other hand not having the old prince," these people likely "cannot agree in making one [prince or leader] from amongst themselves, and they do not know how to govern themselves." Thus, an aspiring prince either from the occupier, America, or from a clerical minority, "can gain them [the people] to himself and secure them much more easily." Appoint a Prince who can astutely balance religious and political factions better than a democracy, he would counsel.

Although Iraq has not been slow to take up arms, there is a lack of internal traditions of self-governance within the nation, thus, Machiavelli believes, that the divisions been fundamentalists and secularists, between rival ethnic groups and even within the Muslim faith itself between Sunni and Shiite factions means that ultimately it will be easier to simply appoint a new Prince, especially if Iraqis have not been accustomed to obeying the institutions and protocols involved in republican self-government.

One of Plato's Gold Guardians from his ideal Socratic oligarchy might agree that democracy, despite its being identified as a Greek construct, would not be the ideal path for Iraq to follow. Plato's Republic argues that humans are born with three possible qualities of souls -- gold, silver or bronze. While all are necessary to society -- for every society needs philosophers and swineherds, the abilities of a Gold Guardian, or a philosopher at heart, means that person should rule, not the will of the common people. Non-philosophers "can see moral actions, but not morality itself, and so on. They only ever entertain beliefs and do not know any of the things that they believe," (Plato, p.202). Thus the most fit to rule would not be the most military powerful occupier, such as President Bush, or the person who could govern most peacefully in an autocratic manner and stifle factional disputes, as Machiavelli might suggest.