ABSTRACT
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) lived in Italy at the end of the Renaissance. In his works II principe (‘The Prince’) and Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio (‘The Discourses’), Machiavelli discusses why political leaders rise and fall, and the best means to hold on to power. In The Prince he advocated absolute monarchy, and in The Discourses he advocated a republic. But both works express a realpolitiker view of government: the political results are what count.
