A long line of brilliant thinkers have linked the idea of dissent with the possession of a consistent intelligence--an intelligence that knows how to create power and also maintain it. 

The relentless Machiavelli who was divided between his respect of democracies and his love of republics advised sovereigns who wish to create power and maintain it to be sufficiently flexible, when new political situations demand it, and also listen carefully to fortune, when it meanders its way. Virtu propels the engines of the uniquely political; and Fortuna favors leaders only when they intuit its presence and shutoff the analytical propensities of intelligent rulers. 

Politics, argued Machiavelli, cannot be anchored on moral goodness-that is too utopian, but rather on virtu (flexible disposition) and Fortuna (luck). Both concepts are crucial for the understanding of the distinctly political. Virtu produces appropriate political action swiftly, intelligently and courageously; Fortuna projects ample opportunities that favor the moves of Virtu. Both Virtu and Fortuna work in concert to move the people from passivity towards social movements that aim at changing their lives and increase their freedoms by creating power and counter the tyrannies of an oppressive regime. 

The current leader of the Ethiopian regime known for his erudition has certainly read Machiavelli’s Prince and is actively using its teachings, for the particular purpose of squashing dissent by annihilating the voices of dissent, exactly as Machiavelli advises. It is not an accident that, Tewodros Afro, the Icon of contemporary Ethiopian Music is rotting in prison. The Ethiopian sovereign has taken Machiavelli’s advise to heart and is aiming at jailing, killing and intimidating the Icons of the Ethiopian people. Machiavelli’s advise centers on what the sovereign has to do to remain in power, once power is acquired. Maintaining power is much more difficult than coming to power. One could come to power if Fortuna favors the leader. Once thus favored the sovereign then must master the techniques of virtu to stay in power, otherwise the leader looses ground, as Machiavelli counsels.

I would now like to give a latent and surface interpretation to Machiavelli’s’ classic text, The Prince. In this piece, what I wish to show is the People’s Machiavelli, before I begin advising the opposition about how they can use Machiavelli’s insights to organize the people to demand change and bring change. 

Above I gave a surface interpretation of two cardinal Machiavellian concepts, Virtu and Fortuna, and applied them as tools by which we can examine the structure of politics on Machiavelli’s view. The surface argument is that the leader of monarchies and republics should fashion his leadership by using Virtu in concert with Fortuna. Political attention is given to the single leader, should he want to create power and maintain it. The center of attention is the single leader who governs the people both as the masses without whom he cannot survive, and against whom he must guard himself, as they may secretly intend to topple him. He loves the people enough to use them and fears them equally because they are the ultimate houses of power. The above is the surface reading of the relevant parts of The Prince, but there is a latent reading. 

The latent reading is premised on the view that in contrast to leaders, the people are the honest elements of the population. The latent reading is further buttressed by Machiavelli’s decision to write The Prince, in Italian, the language of the people- so that the people can read The Prince and understand their plight in the appropriate language. Had Machiavelli not cared about the people, he could have presented the text to the Medici family, the rulers at the time, in Latin, the language of the ruling element. Given this overt decision, one could surmise that, the author wanted the people to know how they are being governed, and most importantly, realize what they must do, if they are being governed incorrectly. The Prince shows both the nature of the distinctly political and tactics of political action and the perennial rules of revolution. In the latent sense, The Prince, is also uniquely and brilliantly revolutionary- a manifesto for the people and not merely a manifesto for rulers, on the surface reading.


On the latent reading, it is the people who matter; it is the people who make laws, although, given their sheer number, they cannot execute the laws that they could legislate, by choosing organic leaders who represent their interests. Moreover, since stability was so important to Machiavelli, he could not imaging a stable republic that is not loved by the people, and in order to love the order, the people must create it, the people must participate in the creation of power in concert with the right sovereign, who governs democratically and not tyrannically, since tyranny is the way of beasts and democracy is the way of the enlightened, the way of moral leaders. 

For us Ethiopians, the latent reading commands us writers to write for the people, in their language, in this instance Amharic, and translate Machiavelli into Amharic spiced by our proverbs and stories, and pierce their hearts, the seat of their thinking. 
Future articles will apply the latent reading to the cultivation of a democratic opposition for Ethiopia’ future. 

Teodros Kiros (PH.D)