Saturday, January 25, 2020

Major Internet Applications

Major Internet Applications It is traditionally the most significant and remains the most commonly employed. This illustrates the simple structure in which client processes cooperate with individual server process in separate host computers in order to access the shared resources those they mange. Servers may in twist be clients of other servers, as the figure indicates. For example, a web server is frequently a client of a local file server that manages the files in which the web pages are store. For the applications discussed in Exercise 2.1 state how the servers cooperate in providing a service. Web servers and most other Internet services are clients of the DNS service, which translate Internet Domain Names to network addresses. Also, search engines, which enable users to look up summary of information obtainable on web pages at site all over the Internet. A search engine is a web server that responds to client requests to search in its stored indexes and (concurrently) runs several web crawler tasks to build and update the indexes. What are the requirements for synchronization between these concurrent activities? What happen are the server tasks (respond to user queries) and the crawler tasks (making request to other web servers) are completely independent because there is small need to synchronize them and they may run concurrently. In reality, atypical search engine would normally include many concurrent threads of execution some serving its clients and others running web crawlers. The host computers used in peer-to-peer systems is often simply desktop computers in users offices of homes. What are the implications of this for the availability and security of any shared data objects tat they hold and to what extent can any weaknesses be overcome through the use of replication? List the types of local resource that are vulnerable to an attack by an untrusted program that is downloaded from a remote site and run in a local computer. Network communication the program might attempt to create sockets, connect to them, and send messages .Access to printers. It may also impersonate the user in various ways for example: sending receiving email Objects in the file system for example files, directories can be read/written/created/deleted using the rights of the local user who runs the program. Mobile agent is a running program (including both code and data) that movements from one computer to another in a network transport out a task on someones behalf, such as collect information, finally returning with the results. A mobile agent can make many invocations to local resources at each site it visits for example, access individual database entries. Give some examples of applications where the use of mobile code is beneficial. Applets one example of mobile code which means: the user running a browser selects a link to an applet whose code is stored on a web server so the code is downloaded to the browser and runs there Accessing services which mean: running code that can invoke their operations. What factors affect the responsiveness of an application that accesses shared data managed by a server? Describe remedies that are available and discuss their usefulness. When the client accesses a server, it makes an invocation of a process in a server running in a remote computer. These things that affect the responsiveness: Server overloaded, Latency in exchanging request and replies, Load on network. The use of reserve helps with all of the above problems. In fact client reserve reduces all of them. Proxy server reserve helps with duplication of the service also helps with the use of lightweight communication protocols helps with. Distinguish between buffering and caching. Buffering: a method for store data transmit from a sending process to a receiving process in local memory or disk storage until the receiving process is prepared to use it. For example, when reading data from a file or transmitting messages during a network, it is useful to handle it in huge blocks. The blocks are held in buffer storage in the receiving process memory space. The buffer is free when the data has been used by the process. Caching: a technique for optimizing access to isolated data objects by hold a copy of them in local memory or disk storage. Accesses to parts of the remote object are translated into accesses to the related parts of the local copy. Unlike buffering, the local copy may be retained as long as there is local memory obtainable to hold it. A cache management algorithm and a release policy are wanted to run the use of the memory allocated to the cache. Give some examples of faults in hardware and software that can/cannot be tolerated by the use of redundancy in a distributed system. To what extent does the use of redundancy in the appropriate cases make a system fault-tolerant? Hardware faults processors, disks, and network connections can use redundancy for example: run process on multiple computers, write to two disks, have two separate routes in the network available. Software bugs, crashes. Redundancy is not high-quality with bugs because they will be replicated. Replicated processes help with crashes which may be due to bugs in unrelated parts of the system. Retransmitted messages help with lost messages. Redundancy makes faults less likely to occur Consider a pair of processes X and Y that use the communication service B from Exercise 2.14 to communicate with one another. Suppose that X is a client and Y a server and that an invocation consists of a request message from X to Y (that carries out the request) followed by a reply message from Y to X. Describe the classes of failure that may be exhibited by an invocation. An invocation may suffer from the following failures: Crash failures: X or Y may crash. Therefore an invocation may suffer from crash failures. Omission failures: as SB suffers from omission failures the request or reply message may be lost. Describe possible occurrences of each of the main types of security threat (threats to processes, threats to communication channels, denial of service) that might occur in the Internet. Threats to processes: not including authentication of main and servers, a lot of threats exist. An enemy could access other users files or mailboxes. Threats to communication channels: IP spoofing sending requests to servers with a false source address.

Friday, January 17, 2020

Analysis of Dynacorp Case Essay

The strategic design lens assumes organizations are deliberate, goal-achieving entities. In this view, managers can achieve organizational goals by understanding the fundamentals of design and fitting design to strategy, as well as to the larger organizational environment. In this paper, I discuss the five major elements of strategy – environmental fit, strategic intent, strategic grouping, strategic linking, and alignment – and identify two specific elements as causes of the problems Dynacorp is experiencing with its redesign. These elements are strategic linking and alignment. Fit with the Environment In the 1980s, Dynacorp was an excellent fit with the environment; it produced high-quality, innovation products. As result, its customers were happy to wait months or even a year for the company to bring out a new product and to â€Å"do some of their own applications work and figure out how to integrate Dynacorp’s products with the rest of their operations†. In the 1990s, however, the company lost the technological advantage it had maintained over the competition. According to Carl Greystone, executive vice president of the U. S. Cus-tomer Operations Group, â€Å"Both foreign and domestic competitors have been cutting into our market share, and our gross margins are way down,†. Indeed, Dynacorp was finding that many of its customers needed more than hardware, but want-ed ‘complete solutions’ to problems. Customers were â€Å"looking for systems solutions, more cus-tomized software, and more value-added services†. Dynacorp’s senior managers recognized that the firm’s existing functional structure was seriously inhibiting the organization from creating effective cross-functional responses to its external environment. Strategic Intent Dynacorp’s senior management thus moved to redefine the firm’s strategic intent, a no-tion that Ancona et al. define as â€Å"setting the strategy or mandate of the organization†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . Instead of continuing to think of itself as a company merely selling hardware, the firm reorganized with the intention of providing customers with the integrated solutions they were demanding, and, where necessary, to do all this on a global basis. Strategic Grouping To implement its strategic intent, Dynacorp executives first had to make decisions about how to regroup tasks and functions. According to Ancona et al. , strategic grouping is a process of deciding â€Å"how the necessary activities are to be allocated into jobs, department, divisions, and other units, and how people are assigned to each†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . The textbook describes five possible methods by which grouping of functions can be organized: activity; output; user, customer, or geography; matrix; and business process. At Dynacorp, the decision was made to move away from grouping by activity. Instead, the development, manufacturing, and marketing functions were grouped together into an output-oriented set of â€Å"‘end-to-end’ business units† in which all the functions would be ex-pected to contribute to the success of a product or a family of products or services. Within the sales area, executives decided to group by geography (U. S. , Europe, Latin America/Asia, with each of these areas further subdivided into regions) rather than to create multiple sales forces for each business unit. â€Å"Since products overlapped,† the interviewer was told, â€Å"the purchasers of different products were frequently the same people, and the cost inherent in replicating the field structure several times was prohibitive,†. Within each sales region, management created account teams with each team focusing on customers within market segments and industries. Greystone asserts that such a restructuring will result in industry specialists, rather than salespersons who were only knowledgeable about particular products. Greystone seemed optimistic: â€Å"You see, we feel that by targeting our investments toward growth of sales in specific industries and developing solutions to fit their needs, we’ll rebuild our market share and increase margins,† Strategic Linking Ancona et al. describe strategic linking as both formal and informal processes and posi-tions that would integrate units and subunits which are interdependent in tasks. The text identifies a wide array of linking mechanisms, including formal reporting structures, liaison roles, permanent or temporary cross-unit groups, integrator roles, information technology systems, and planning processes. Strategic linking at Dynacorp was to be accomplished, in the first instance, by linking development, manufacturing, and marketing within each Business Unit through a change in the formal reporting structure. Carl Greystone expressed his conviction that a â€Å"tremendous amount of progress† has been made since these changes were instituted and that his personnel are â€Å"thinking about the business in new terms†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Even Greystone, however, was forced to admit that his group had been â€Å"consistently behind plan in both revenue and profit† for the past year and a half and that the â€Å"Business Unit presidents have expressed some frustration with the performance of his group. †Martha Pauley, a Branch Manager in Greystone’s division who supervised six teams that â€Å"handle financial institutions, insurance, and education in the Northeast Region,† was considerably quite disillusioned about the absence of effective cross-functional relations between sales and the Business Units. Specifically, Pauley was finding it difficult to compete because of business decisions in which she had been given no role. She had several complaints: â€Å"Our prices are still higher than our competitors’, and technical support services are way too slow. The new plant in Indonesia was supposed to help bring prices down, but they’re having problems getting the factory up and running. Since I have no control over unit manufacturing costs or the availability of technical support resources, I can’t help the team’s effectiveness in these areas†. A second way in which strategic linking was to be accomplished was to establish multi-function Account Teams focused on â€Å"selling customized solutions based on integrating our products, rather than on selling fancy hardware. †These permanent cross-unit groups were comprised of â€Å"account managers, product specialists, solution consultants, service technicians, customer administration specialists, and systems specialists. † Describing the actual functioning of these new teams to the interviewer, Martha Pauley confessed that â€Å"everyone has been so busy trying to understand their new responsibilities while still keeping up with our customers that we have communicated only through e-mail messages. We haven’t had time for the off site meeting that I had planned. Anyway, we’re still getting modifications on the job guidelines from the staff group. † The time pressures reported by Pauley were evident when she takes the interviewer into a meeting of one account team; there, they found â€Å"about half† of the members missing because of other obligations. As the meeting progressed, it also became apparent that this account team was struggling to meet its goals. The team had just been outbid for a contract with a Boston bank because its competitor had been able to offer â€Å"lower prices and a much more comprehensive package† . With regard to planning as a means of strategic linking, there too Pauley’s teams were struggling. Pauley admitted to the interviewer that she â€Å"hadn’t had a chance to develop a cohe-sive sales plan to show you†. Alignment The last of the strategic design processes is alignment: â€Å"that is, assessing the implica-tions of strategic grouping and linking patterns for the rest of the organization’s structures and processes, and making changes to ensure that the grouping and linking patterns can be implemented effectively†. suggest that each of the following be considered as elements of alignment: organizational performance measurement systems, individual rewards and incentives, resource allocation, human resource development, and informal systems and processes. One obvious alignment problem in this case concerns individual rewards and incen-tives. Ben Walker, VP of the Northeast Region, notes that the new reward system compensates branch managers in sales and product managers in the Business Units on â€Å"performance against revenue and margin goals,† but Walker worries that â€Å"no one in these jobs has the skills to be a team player. † Soon thereafter, Martha Pauley complained to the interviewer about precisely this problem. Although she shared revenue goals for her teams with the product team’s general managers in the Business Units, her own performance was being hampered by the fact that â€Å"different product team leaders in the Business Units are pushing different types of sales, depending on their particular product lines. † Something similar was happening to Pauley’s Account Teams, whose sales performance depended, in part, on their ability to get adequate Technical Support to their clients, yet they had no control over this support unit. Dynacorp’s turnaround also was being hurt by the company’s failure to give appropriate support to human resources development. Ben Walker is convinced that the company has â€Å"too many people who know how to sell products but not solutions† and projects that â€Å"at least 25 percent of the current staff needs to be replaced. † Right now we have the customer teams functioning under new guidelines that force them to collect information on customer needs and develop solutions. But too many team members are still operating under the old attitude that the equipment sells itself and the customers will do the work of integrating our products into their operations. The notion of helping the customer from initial call through implementation and use of the system is still quite alien to many of our people. The fact that Sales Team Member 2 soon was seen expressing a desire for more customers who want â€Å"standard off-the-shelf equipment† suggests that Walker’s concerns have merit. And Martha Pauley, to her credit, does not hide the fact that her teams lack training. â€Å"You see,† Pauley says, â€Å"moving from a product salesperson to a provider of solutions in a big change. It involves knowledge of the industry and the company, the full line of products, our various software applications, and concepts of systems integration. Exactly who handles all the pieces of a sale like this is still unclear†. Finally, there is some evidence of dissatisfaction with Dynacorp’s resource allocation practices, given the perceived high cost of manufacturing and the problems with Technical Support. As we have seen, at least one account team is having difficulty competing on price; and Martha Pauley complains that Dynacorp’s prices â€Å"are still higher than our competitors’, and technical support services are way too slow†.   Dynacorp appears to have done a good job of analyzing its fit with the environment and crafting a strategy that is likely to be responsive to that environment. The strategic groupings are well-suited to the strategic intent, positioning Dynacorp to be a geographically-focused, industry-specific organization that is organized to bring cross-functional talent to bear on the service as well as hardware needs of its customers. Dynacorp fails, however, to give adequate attention to strategic linking processes. There is evidence of a lack of planning, particularly as it involves product and branch managers and their staffs, apparently resulting in a lack of widespread commitment at all levels of the organization to the new mission. There also are problems of coordination between branch managers in sales and the Business Units and between the Account Teams and the Technology Specialists. Finally, the new cross-functional sales teams have had little opportunity to work out their methods of operation. Dynacorp also fails to give adequate attention to alignment. Individual reward systems and incentives work at cross-purposes with unit goals, and manufacturing costs are too high for sales teams to compete effectively. Finally, there is almost a complete absence of training—both for product and branch managers and for the various functional specialists who are now expected to work as members of teams. The senior managers at Dynacorp have made impressive efforts to respond to their highly competitive environment. However, unless careful attention is given to the strategic linking and alignment processes, this organizational redesign effort is destined to fail.

Thursday, January 9, 2020

What Benefits Are There Of Marriage Today - 2151 Words

What benefits are there of marriage today and why do Americans continue to marry? Campbell and Wright (2010) point out, even with roughly a 50% chance of first marriages ending in divorce in the United States, marriage is still the crucial goal for most adults. The top reason given by individuals for getting married is now love (p. 331). In a life time a person will typical meet an individual, get married, have a child, and live happily ever after. In our society, these life events are now occurring in numerous orders, which is altering the traditional concept of marriage. These new trends are not necessarily wrong, but it does force counselors to respond to the changing family structure. Once marriage occurs, there are problems that†¦show more content†¦Marriage Pinsof (2002) addresses marriages as a relationship that is predicated on a mutual and voluntary commitment to a life-long, monogamous partnership. â€Å"Monogamy† refers to sexual exclusivity and means that the partners in a marriage pledge sexual fidelity as part of their commitment (p. 137). Although there is not one way to have a healthy satisfying marriage, there are some common factors that are worth highlighting as the following characteristics: investment in the well-being of the beloved, respect, admiration, sexual desire, intimacy, commitment, exclusivity, and understanding (Manning, 2007). Traditional Marriage According to Russell, Baker, and Mcnulty (2013), marital relationships can be the source of life’s most enjoyable experiences, they are also the source of one of life’s most painful experiences – infidelity. The difference between dating and marital relationships is that married individuals demonstrate higher levels of commitment (p. 244). In the past, people didn’t really marry for love. Prior to the 20th century, the most common endpoint of marriage became divorce (Pinsof, 2002). Marriage Today Since women beginning working out side out the home, and beginning to have the option to use contraception, the dynamics of marriage shifted. Baker and Emery (1993) study concluded that first, those who are about to be married have largely incorrect perceptions of the legal terms of the marriage contract as

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

Does Machiavelli Reduce Politics to Force - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 9 Words: 2797 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Philosophy Essay Type Argumentative essay Did you like this example? In this essay, I assess whether Machiavelli reduces politics to force.   To construct a response to this, it is necessary to explore what force means, since force is a philosophically weak concept.   In order to understand force as a philosophical concept, we need to separate the concepts of authority and power.   With a clear concept of what we mean by power and how it differs from authority, it becomes possible to discuss whether Machiavelli reduces politics to force.   Once the concepts of power and authority are clearly differentiated, the question becomes does Machiavelli reduce politics to force, where force is equated to power, or does Machiavelli rest politics on authority. In this essay, I argue that, despite Skinners attempts to re-habilitate Machiavelli and re-construct Machiavelli as a defender of liberty, Machiavelli does not rest power and politics on authority.   Instead, Machiavelli argues that power should be utilised for the purpose of the common good.   For Machiavelli, political necessity allows for incursions on liberty and the use of power, rather than authority.   Femia is alive to the implications of the dark, authoritarian and militaristic element in Machiavellis writings (Femia, 2004, p.15); and, in this essay, I argue that this should not be overlooked. Goodwin argues that attempting to distinguish rigorously between power and authority is ultimately doomed to failure (Goodwin, 1997, p.314).   However, she argues that the distinction between power and authority has exercised many philosophers, who feel there should be a sharp demarcation between the two (Goodwin, 1997, p.306).   Whilst a sharp demarcation may not be possible, Goodwin does separate the two.   She argues that power is the ability to cause someone to act in a way which she would not choose, [if] left to herself (Goodwin, 1997, p. 307).   This can, obviously, oc cur in a number of ways, including threats and violence, but also through persuasion, propaganda and advertising.   However, authority Goodwin argues, has a basis in law; a government has authority if it has legal validity (Goodwin, 1997). Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Does Machiavelli Reduce Politics to Force?" essay for you Create order A sharp distinction between power and authority may not be possible, and it may be made to see the concepts on sliding scale, with illegitimate power on oneside, and legitimate authority on the other side, with much in-between.  Ãƒâ€š This separation between power and authority is fundamental to this essay, as it is important to understand whether Machiavelli argues that politics ought to rest on authority or whether it can be reduced to maintaining power.   Therefore, in an attempt to summarise the demarcation between power and authority, I once more return to Goodwin, who says the individual defers to authorityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ [but] yields to power (Goodwin, 1997, p.313).   If Machiavelli reduces politics to force/power, his concern is that people must yield to the government; whereas, if Machiavelli argues that politics ought to rest on authority, his concern would be that the people deferred to the government, and recognised its legal legitimacy. Machiav ellis political philosophy is more complex than the often one-dimensional interpretation of Machiavelli as a self-serving manipulator, promoter of immorality and defender of tyranny.   In contrast to the one-dimensional view of Machiavelli which implies that he reduces politics to the maintenance of power and a justification of tyranny, Machiavelli is a defender of a certain kind of liberty.   However, Machiavellis concept of liberty is about the liberty of the state or the Government.   He argues that in order for the people to be free, they must live a free state à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" a state free from external servitude.   Machiavellis concept of liberty prioritises the state in the relationship between the individual and the state: it is not the well-being of individuals that makes cities great, but the well-being of the community (Machiavelli, The Discourses: Book II, Discourse 2).   For Machiavelli, it is not the individual that is important, bu t the community or the state.   Therefore, the individual must yield to the will of the state for the liberty and well-being of the common good. In his interpretation of Machiavellis thought, Skinner emphasises the importance of the free state; and crucially, he stresses the seriousness of the metaphor of the body politic to neo-roman thought, which meant that Machiavelli could not conceive of a free individual without a free state.   This is only one of many interpretations of Machiavelli, and is not objective as it is underpins Skinners thesis that liberty was an important concept to Machiavelli.   Machiavelli defines the free state as one that is removed from any kind of external servitude (Machiavelli, The Discourses: Book I, Discourse 2).   Skinner expands this by relating it to the concept of the body politic, where, just as individual human bodies are freeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ only if they are able to act or forbear from acting at will, so the bodies of nations and states are likewise freeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ only if they are similarly unconstrained from using their powers according to their own wills (Skinner, 1998, p.25).   Skinners elaboration means that a state is only free, when it follows the collective will of the people, and thereby, liberty is equated to self-government, so a free state is defined as a community independent of any authority save that of the community itself (Skinner, 1981, p.52).   Machiavelli stridently defends the free state, arguing that history reveals the harm that servitude has done to people and citiesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ [as they] have never increased either in dominion or wealth, unless they have been independent (Machiavelli, The Discourses: Book II, Discourse 2).   This underpins Machiavellis perennial fear that freedom is fragile and liberty could succumb to external conquest or internal tyranny. Skinner pursues this notion, and argues that overt coercion is not necessary for a state to be in a condition of slavery: if the maintenance of civil liberty is dependent upon the good will of arbitrary power, then the individual is already living as a slave (Skinner, 1998).   This is a rational consequence of Machiavellis bleak interpretation of human nature, where men do not promote the common good i.e. the preservation of the states liberty.   Machiavelli argues that humans are: self motivated à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" men never do good unless necessity drives them (Machiavelli, The Discourses: Book I, Discourse 3); bellicose à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" security for man is impossible unless it be conjoined with power (Machiavelli, The Discourses: Book I, Discourse 1); fickle and untrustworthy à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" they will not keep their promises (Machiavelli, The Prince: Chapter XVIII); pusillanimous à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" when the state needs its citizens, few are to be found (Machiavelli, The Prince: Chapter IX).   These attributes are a hindrance to a state that is trying to preserve its ability to enact the collective will without constraint.   Therefore, liberty requires overcoming mens selfish inclination, so they can be fit to govern themselves, and this involves engaging in activities which are conducive to human flourishing (Skinner, 1990).   Given that it is contrary to mens natural inclinations to pursue the common good, it seems that this involves yielding to the power of the state.   Skinners eloquent term human flourishing describes the need to imbue each citizen with a sense of civic virtÃÆ' ¹, which is essentially, a public-spirited ethos, whereby the individual commits a great deal of time and energy to participating in the affairs of the state, and maintaining a vigilance to safeguard its freedom.   Skinner admits that civic virtÃÆ' ¹ requires placing the good of the community above all private interests and ordinary considerations of morality (Skinner, 1981, p.54). Machiavellis political philosophy rests on valuing the public sphere, with a resulting dismissive attitude toward the private sphere.   Thus, the citizens of the state are required to yield to the power of the state, and to relinquish their individual liberty, if it is perceived to be in the common good.   Machiavelli praises Rome where those who worked through the public sphere were honoured, but those working through private means were condemned and prosecuted (Machiavelli, The Discourses).   Machiavelli argues that a sense of duty to the community, which entails sacrificing the legitimacy of the private sphere, does not curtail liberty but preserve it, as civic virtÃÆ' ¹ is essential to ensuring the state is not constrained from acting upon its own will.   He quotes, (possibly apocryphally) from ancient history: they rebelled because when peace means servitude it is more intolerable to free men than war (Machiavelli, The Discourses: Book III, Discourse 44), whi ch appeals to Machiavellis doctrine of public-spiritedness, and his promotion of the well-being of the community. Machiavelli promotes the ideals of republicanism, and republican liberty, which entails a need to safeguard the state against internal tyranny, through citizens that are active, vigilant, and participate in the daily running of the community to ensure that the state is not subjected to the caprices of a minority; and that, instead, the community seeks the public interest.   Machiavelli criticises the consequences of internal tyranny with empirical reference to the greatness attained by Athens, once liberated from the tyranny of Pisistratusà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. [and] the greatness which Rome attained after freeing itself from its Kings (Machiavelli, The Discourses: Book II, Discourse 2).   Thus, Machiavelli can be read as a defender of liberty by citing his belief that the conflict between the nobles and plebs was the primary reason Rome maintained her fr eedom (Machiavelli, The Discourses), and his assertion that a Monarchs interests are usually harmful to the city (Machiavelli, The Discourses).   This interpretation of Machiavelli shows that he does not unambiguously reduce politics to the use of force and power.   Instead, he argues that politics rests on the order of a well-structured government.   However, for Machiavelli, a well-structured government and political authority are not necessarily synonymous, since he argues that political order may require the use of force and the wielding of power by a powerful leader. Machiavellis writings are littered with references to his love for strong leadership e.g. dictatorship was always useful in Rome (Machiavelli, The Discourses), or his defence of a Princes cruelty to keep his subjects united and loyal, as men are wretched and will pursue their own interest, unless they fear punishment (Machiavelli, The Prince).   There are clearly elements of Machiavel lis writings that support the idea of the free state and a certain concept of liberty; for instance, he argues that experience shows that cities have never increased in dominion or riches except while they have been at liberty (Machiavelli, The Discourses: Book II, Discourse 2).   This allows Skinner to construct Machiavelli as a defender of liberty, by arguing that what Machiavelli primarily has in mind in laying so much emphasis on liberty is that a city bent on greatness must remain free from all forms of political servitude (Skinner, 1981, p.58).   Skinners reading of Machiavelli suggests that Machiavelli did not reduce politics to force and power; and that, instead, Machiavelli rested politics on political authority.   However, this re-habilitating of Machiavelli by Skinner overlooks a number of passages in Machiavellis writing that show he clearly was prepared to allow force and power to be used without linking it to authority. Femia takes the view that Machiavelli was not a defender of liberty, and did not place authority at the heart of politics.   Femia concludes that Machiavellis political thought can be characterised by the belief that we cannot draw a sharp line between moral virtue and moral vice: the two things often change place.   Fair is foul and foul is fair (Femia, 2004, p.11).   For Machiavelli, it is the state that is important, and the individuals liberty can be subjected to power and force in order for the good of the city to prevail.   Machiavelli eradicates the private sphere, which allows Femia to draw a parallel between Machiavellis concept of freedom and fascists who also argue that freedom comes through participating in a great wholeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ [and] nothing to do with limiting the states autonomy (Femia, 2004, p.8).   Machiavelli primary concern is maintaining political order, and his advice in The Prince often seems to be more about maintaining power, than establishin g authority.   In places, Machiavellis advice is brutal, and seems unambiguously to promote the exercise of force for the purposes of maintaining power. Machiavelli shows no regard for individual liberties, and allows The State to trample over its citizens when force and power are necessary, arguing that it should be noted that one must either pamper or do away with men, because they will avenge themselves for minor offences while for more serious ones they cannot (Machiavelli, The Prince: Chapter III).   This brutal, cynical observation is an instance of Machiavellis realism.   Such cynical realistic observations do not, in themselves, prove that Machiavelli reduces politics to force and power.   It is possible to argue that Machiavellis observation accurately observes politics, and he is simply drawing the reader to an important piece of wisdom about human nature.   However, this does not seem to be Machiavellis motivation.   He is not merely observing brutal realism, but appears to be advocating its application.   He argues that those the ruler hurts, being dispersed and poor, can never be a threat to him, and all others remain on the one hand unharmedà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ and on the other afraid of making a mistake, for fear that what happened to those who were dispossessed might happen to them (Machiavelli, The Prince: Chapter III).   The important word here is fear.   The people fear the ruler, and so obey.   This does not imply that the ruler that governs by authority. Instead, the implication is that the ruler holds power through force. Despite the ruthless, brutal and cynical methods that Machiavelli appears to advocate, it is important not to misread Machiavelli as someone who advocates force and violence merely for the sake of power.   Machiavelli is concerned with The Common Good, and thus he argues that the exercise of force à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" raw power à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" is only justified if it is exercised in pursuit of The Common Good.   Or, more simply, the ends justify the means.   Machiavelli does not advocate raw power, per se; instead, he argues that if the ends are good, then the use of force is justified.   This blurring of the common good and the use of power to promote it is evident when he argues that a prince must not worry about the reproach of cruelty when it is a matter of keeping his subjects united and loyal; for with a very few examples of cruelty he will be more compassionate than those who, out of excessive mercy, permit disorders to continueà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ for these usually harm the community at large (Machiavelli, The Prince: Chapter XVII).   This, however, exposes the paradox in Machiavellis thought, where cruelty is justified by the ends.   The problem is that Machiavellis initial concern is about holding power to prevent disobedience and disorder.   It is possible that this exercis ing of power may shift, and become authority; but, in its first instance, politics is about maintaining power. Machiavelli was a Renaissance writer; and, therefore, the differentiation between power and authority that Goodwin discussed had not become a part of political philosophy.   Therefore, to argue that Machiavelli did not seek political authority, but power, would be a mis-representation, as these concepts were not available to him.   However, for Machiavelli, political necessity dominates, and in a realist vein, he allows for incursions on liberty and the use of force and even cruelty to hold power.   Ultimately, he seeks authority in the common good, and this justifies whatever methods are used to hold on to power. Machiavelli doesnt simply reduce politics to force, since force is used to pursue the common good.   However, Machiavelli is not concerned with the individual citizen, since he does not differentiate between the public and private realms.   Thus, Machiavelli is not concerned with individual liberty and individuals rights: when the private person may be the loserà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ there are so many who benefit thereby that the common good can be realized in spite of those few who suffer in consequence (Machiavelli, The Discourses: Book II, Discourse 2).   Without a clear separation of public and private, and between legitimate authority and illegitimate power, the common good can become the arbitrary will of the ruler.   The arbitrary will of a ruler à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" even one that is seeking to promote the common good à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" leaves politics very open to the use of force to maintain power, in the name of common good.   This notion of the use of force to maintain power is quite different from the use of force by a Government that governs through authority, under the rule of law. Bibliography Femia, J (2004) Machiavelli and Italian Fascism, History of Political Thought, Volume 25, Issue 1, pp. 1-15 Goodwin, B (1997) Using Political Ideas (4th edition), John Wiley Sons, Chichester Machiavelli, N (1984) The Prince (Edited, Introduced and Translated by P Bondanella and M Musa) Oxford University Press, Oxford Machiavelli, N (1998) The Discourses (Edited, Introduced, Revised and Translated by B Crick, L Walker and B Richardson) Penguin Classics, London Skinner, Q (1981) Machiavelli, Oxford University Press, Oxford Skinner, Q (1990) The republican ideal of political liberty in Bock, G Skinner, Q Viroli, M (editors) Machiavelli and Republicanism, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 293-310 Skinner, Q (1998) Liberty Before Liberalism, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge