The Prince, Machiavelli
Published posthumously (5 years)
Medici family, a banking dynasty controlling Florence from 1434 to 1737
Political realism: driven by power, self-interest
Machiavelli:
- focussed on how politics really work, not how it should work
- one can never escape a war, can only postpone to the enemy’s advantage.
States are divided into: hereditary, new principalities, mixed principalities, nobles vs. commoners, and securing power