Reviews for Corruption, conflict, and power in the works and times of Niccolò Machiavelli

The average rating for Corruption, conflict, and power in the works and times of Niccolò Machiavelli based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-12-06 00:00:00 James Obrien There are some interesting comments on this book in the first volume of Ken Binmore's Game Theory and the Social Contract: If MacMullen is to be believed, whole provinces were detached from the Roman Empire in its later years by bands of barbarians who were laughably small in number compared with the provincial garrisons they opposed. It seems that the latter had responded to their incentives by ceasing to be soldiers except in name. Instead they operated as a protection racket whose function was to extort money from local businessmen. Things are no different in our own time. To put it crudely, the pigs nearer the trough get more of the swill. Cooks are as fat as they always were, and butlers are no less rosy-cheeked. Politicians continue to neglect the welfare of those they represent to chase after the prospect of high office. Bankers and lawyers extract vastly more than the value they add to the funds entrusted to their care. University adminstrators spend the money donated for the advancement of scholarship on yachts and fancy receptions. And so on.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-05-17 00:00:00 Peter Jenkins This is by far the most interesting account of the decline of Rome that I have ever read. In a collapse that is described in layers of corruption, so too does the author build his argument in layers. The concluding chapter is brilliant in its effort to tie all the loose ends of the body of the argument together. It might have been a school book, but it is one of the best books I have read in quite a while.