August 14, 2020 (Updated July 17, 2024)
Josip “Tito” Broz, the founding father and first leader of Socialist Yugoslavia, was born in 1892 in a village along the border between modern-day Croatia and Slovenia, in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was ethnically Croatian and Slovene. Conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian military shortly before World War I began in 1914, Broz was sent to fight against Russia in 1915. He was captured as a prisoner of war, remained in Russia after his release, and became a communist revolutionary after the war. When he returned to his homeland, he sought to make it a communist state. During and after World War II, his vision was realized. Yugoslavia (a region comprising Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Bosnia) was invaded by the Axis powers. Broz, the Supreme Commander of the Partisan resistance movement, overthrew the Axis occupiers. He then ruled Yugoslavia from 1944 until his death in 1980. In his treatment of the independent peoples of Yugoslavia, his cultivation of an image as a tough but benevolent autocrat, and his decisive action against the Axis powers in World War II, Broz followed Machiavelli’s advice for successful leadership.
The first way that Broz followed Machiavelli’s outline for leadership laid out in The Prince was his treatment of the six member republics of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was an extremely multicultural state, which was not so much a nation but a closely bound group of nations. Machiavelli recommended three courses of action when governing principalities that lived under their own laws before being annexed: “to ruin them, ... to reside there in person, ... [or] to permit them to live under their own laws, drawing a tribute, and establishing within it [the state] an oligarchy which will keep it friendly to you” (Machiavelli 37). Broz took all three of these courses of action. He, by and large, gave the six republics of Yugoslavia a certain degree of autonomy, while maintaining administration loyal to him. He resided in Belgrade, technically part of Serbia. And crucially, he “ruthlessly purged any flowerings of nationalism that threatened the Yugoslav federation” (Finlan 10). Broz followed not just one but all three of Machiavelli’s guidelines for ruling previously independent nations.
Another way in which Broz acted in accordance with Machiavelli’s principles of leadership was his facilitation of a cult of personality and fear. Broz walked the line between being revered for heroism and being feared for cruel acts. He certainly made dictatorial shows of force, “putting thousands of political opponents in special prisons and camps, including a jail on the Croatian island of Goli Otok, where hundreds perished” (Agence France-Presse 1). In spite of this, Broz was seen by Yugoslavia’s populace as a hero both for his achievements in World War II and his postwar creation and leadership of Communist Yugoslavia. During his reign, four cities were renamed after him, including the capital of Montenegro. In The Prince, Machiavelli claims that “a prince ought to inspire fear in such a way that, if he does not win love, he avoids hatred; because he can endure very well being feared whilst he is not hated, which will always be as long as he abstains from the property of his citizens and subjects and from their women” (Machiavelli 99). Broz was both loved and feared, and hatred was minimized. This was because Broz didn’t seize civilian property as well as because, according to a dissident exiled during his regime, his was a “vegetarian dictatorship. Sweep-ups were not bloody; people were removed to be forgotten, in order for him to stay in power” (Zimonjic 1). By Machiavelli’s standards, Broz maintained a good balance of cruelty and leniency.
Finally, Broz followed Machiavelli’s advice about neutrality. According to Machiavelli, a leader shouldn’t cower in neutrality when a nearby war is raging, because a leader is “respected when he is either a true friend or a downright enemy, that is to say, when, without any reservation, he declares himself in favour of one party against the other; which course will always be more advantageous than standing neutral; because if two of your powerful neighbours come to blows, they are of such a character that, if one of them conquers, you have either to fear him or not” (Machiavelli 127). When World War II raged, Broz, the leader of the Partisans in Yugoslavia, made a decision to fight alongside the Allies against the Axis. The Partisans didn’t tentatively band with the Allies when it was obvious, they threw themselves in when the war was still not decided. They “were not simply auxiliaries of the Allied war effort but an offensive force in their own right” (Encyclopedia Britannica 1). So when the Allies ultimately won, Yugoslavia was respected as a dedicated ally. If Broz hadn’t decided to fight against the Axis, Yugoslavia would have been ignored or even punished for its neutrality. He took the right course of action in the conflict as well as according to Machiavelli’s rules.
In conclusion, Josip “Tito” Broz was an effective and unwavering leader who wielded absolute power. The way he crushed any anti-government nationalism in the constituent republics of Yugoslavia, his creation of a persona as a public hero and authoritarian strongman, and his campaign against the Axis during World War II are all in line with the recommendations for rulers in The Prince. Though Broz decimated dissidents, including both separatist nationalists and various other political opponents, he avoided hatred because of the powerful cult of personality that arose from public fear and his forbearance from seizures of property. While Broz and his Partisans waged war against the technologically superior Axis powers, their unrelenting commitment led to their ultimate success and favor with the Allies. Modern opinions of despotic regimes like that of Broz are negative, but by Machiavelli’s standards, Broz was a good leader.