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Thinkers

Niccolo Machiavelli

Renaissance Humanist · Europe · 1469 to 1527

Italian writer and diplomat who wrote that rulers must judge by results, and who praised free, well-ordered republics.

What it is

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469 to 1527) was a Florentine diplomat, writer and historian of the Italian Renaissance, and one of the founders of modern political thought. His best-known work, The Prince, was written around 1513 but not published until 1532, five years after his death. He also wrote on history, literature, war and diplomacy.

The Prince describes political rule as it works in practice, without the moral advice earlier writers had given to rulers. His Discourses on the first ten books of Livy, which perhaps most honestly express his own beliefs, lean towards republican government and the capacity of ordinary people. The two books have produced centuries of argument about what he really thought.

The main ideas

  • Politics on its own terms. Writers of "mirrors of princes" held that power is rightful only when held by a strictly virtuous ruler. Machiavelli presented a picture of rule based on how power is actually won and kept, apart from moral lessons.
  • Training for rule. The successful ruler needs special skill, foresight and a readiness to learn how to win obedience.
  • Reason of state. Some later writers read him as teaching the doctrine of "reason of state", which puts the preservation of the state first.
  • The modern state. Some historians credit him with first stating the modern idea of the state, an impersonal rule with a monopoly of force in a fixed territory.
  • A republican side. The Discourses on Livy lean towards republican government and show confidence in what the people can contribute.
  • Two books, two readings. The Prince and the Discourses draw on the same stock of ideas but lead to different conclusions, and readers disagree on how they fit.

What it looks like in practice

Imagine a new head of an organisation who has to win the loyalty of a team that did not choose them. A traditional adviser would say to be good and be loved. Machiavelli would ask what actually secures obedience and stability, and how a leader should prepare for what could go wrong. This is an illustration of his line of questioning, not a passage from his writing.

Books and moments

  • The Prince (Il Principe), written about 1513 and published in 1532, is his most widely read work.
  • The Discourses on the Ten Books of Titus Livy is his longer study of republics, with his republican sympathies.

Questions and criticism

  • Denounced and defended. From the sixteenth century he was attacked as an apostle of the Devil and also read with sympathy, which shows how divided readers are about his view of morality.
  • Which is the real Machiavelli? The Prince and the Discourses lead to different conclusions, so it is not clear which one expresses what he believed.
  • Is power apart from morality? It is fair to ask whether a politics freed from moral advice can be trusted to serve anyone but the ruler.

Close neighbours

The writers of advice books for princes are the tradition he broke with. The page on Thomas Hobbes shows another thinker often set beside him as a political realist, and the page on Max Weber shows a later definition of the state close to the one some historians credit to Machiavelli.

Written by epchē in our own words, and checked against independent sources on 29 October 2026. The sources are listed below.

Who they connect to

Influenced

  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau · Rousseau read his book on princes as a hidden lesson for peoples, and shared his praise of republics. (scholars disagree about this link)
  • Thomas Hobbes · Both see politics as the management of power and fear, apart from hopes for a perfect order. (scholars disagree about this link)

Other Renaissance Humanist thinkers

Sources we used

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