Active and healthy citizenship in America has diminished greatly in recent decades. On the whole, Americans do not have the relevant information for participating in civic life while symptoms of a declining American political society, such as heightened polarization and declining community engagement, have become widespread. These trends highlight the failure of American civic education and formation in recent years. This paper argues that American civic education was originally intended to be an enterprise focused on fostering quality citizenship, utilizing both academic instruction and social and political institutions to instruct and shape Americans, and proposes returning to this model to address the adverse trends currently affecting citizenship and civic life.

This qualitative study examined one perennial research question: What lessons from the works of Machiavelli can be taken into consideration to improve U.S. civil-military relations? A case for looking at Machiavelli’s works for solutions to improve military relations off the battlefield is established. This research found two primary themes within the realm of civil-military relations: civilian control of the military and the military doctrine and practices. The researcher examined and analyzed multiple forms of data, including the writings of Machiavelli, military policies, articles, reports from the department of defense, video recordings of interviews, legislation, and historical documents. The researcher analyzed Machiavelli’s The Prince, Discourses on Livy, Art of War, and secondary resources for La Cagione dell’Ordinanza to make conclusions. This research identified lessons from the works of Machiavelli to improve U.S. civil-military relations. The Machiavellian lessons included finding a balance of objective and subjective control of the military, ensuring the president is knowledgeable on military matters, placing an emphasis on conditioning our youth, funding weapons systems and equipment, and continuing to invest in the standing army. Limitations and Future research topics were suggested in the conclusion.Keywords: Machiavelli, civil-military relations, civilian control, military doctrine, task-organization