Political Theory - Essay Example The basis for Marx’ vision was that the ruling class, the bourgeoisie, was corrupting and oppressive to the people, and Marx envisioned a time when the bourgeoisie would be stripped of its power by stripping it of its property and society would be classless. Therefore, Marx essentially advocated that no one class would have power over another classs. On the other hand, Nicolo Machiavelli, in his book The Prince essentially advocated the opposite. Where Marx believed that power should be dissipated, Machiavelli believed that power should be strengthened, and his book showed rulers, called princes by Machiavelli, on how to do this. Machiavelli’s thesis was that a prince should be strengthened, therefore power should be aggrandized and this would be the basis for security in a nation; Marx’ thesis was that the proletariat, or the people, should be strengthened, so that those in power would be displaced and power would not reside in any one group or person. Both books are based upon these basic premises.
