Machiavelli's Inconsistencies:
1.He prescribes for an individual a combination of intellect and force but how can this egoistic virtue in the individual be the basis of a good and strong republican system which requires for its sustenance and efficient working public spirit and patriotism.
2.In the prince he lays down rules for the maintenance of absolute power but in Discourse he prescribes rules in which freedom may be maintained in a republican state.
Machiavelli's doctrine of Aggrandizement:
1.Insists on the necessity of extending the territory of the state by subjection of number of states to the rule of a single prince or commonwealth.
2.The state must expand or expire and extension of dominion was easier in one's own country where there was no difficulty of language or institutions.
3.The force must be used judiciously with craft and the prince must preserve the state but he must pay due respect to established customs and institutions.
4.The prince must have a well trained army of his own subjects and he must not impose heavy taxes and he must patronize art and literature.
5.The most important thing is that constitution must be flexible.
6.Bodin and Groutious build up a theory of legal sovereignty on Machiavelli's concept which was later proper formulated by Austin and Hobbes borrowed from him the concept of human nature.
7.Machiavelli is the first modern totalitarian thinker and he inspired Karl Marx.
8.His state is the Nation and gave the state its modern connotation.
9.He writes about the men and affairs as they are and not as the should be and he is mainly concerned with means not with ends or ideas; followed empirical method.
Machiavelli's Contributions:
1.Diversion between Ethics and Politics and public and private standards of morality.
2.State was an end in itself and he worshiped it like a deity.
3.Blessed were the strong and cunning.
The End to Machiavelli's Philosophy