Machiavelli and systems? LO12371

Stephen Wehrenberg (wstephen@erols.com)
Wed, 05 Feb 1997 08:15:39 -0500

Andrew Wong provided the following citation, which immediately caught my
eye:

There is nothing more difficult to plan,
more doubtful of success
nor more dangerous to manage than
the creation of a new system.

Machiavelli -- The Prince 1513

I have looked high and low, and can't find this passage anywhere in my
copies of The Prince. Also, I have a publication date in 1515, not 1513.
Could Mr. Wong be citing a different writing by Uncle Niccolo? It sure
SOUNDS like something he would say ... can anyone on the list help me
clarify this?

In my reading of The Prince, Mach didn't have much to say about systems in
our use of the word ... he referred to "systems" as organized ways to
"manage" or organized collections of practices and policies--and then only
rarely. More like "systems of thought." However, a system of policies
that is coherent implies a coherent understanding of the "system" within
which those policies operate. Hmmm...does anyone else have an
interpretation of Machiavelli's understanding of systems thinking and
system dynamics?

Steve

-- 
Stephen B. Wehrenberg, Ph.D.
Chief, Forecasts and Systems, US Coast Guard;
Administrative Sciences Program, The George Washington University;
wstephen@erols.com
 


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