Machiavelli: The grubby world of day-to-day politics

Our series continues with the Renaissance political scientist, Niccolò Machiavelli, whose name is still used to invoke cunning and unscrupulous behaviour

Machiavelli’s early work as a diplomat was essential to his thought (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) is probably the world’s best-known political scientist. His fame is such that his name functions as an adjective to denote cunning and unscrupulous behaviour devised to attain a particular end.

To describe a politician as Machiavellian is to suggest that their lack of moral sensibility renders them unsuitable for public office. However, it is also to grant them a certain grudging respect; Machiavellian behaviour is associated with a particular kind of cool, calculating intelligence.

Born in Florence, Machiavelli came to prominence as a young diplomat. He secured his position as head of the Florentine republic’s second chancery in 1498 at the age of 29. It was the custom in Florence for people occupying government positions to have had a strong grounding in the humanities. Machiavelli was no exception; his father, a keen scholar, had ensured that the young Niccolò was educated in the best traditions of Renaissance humanism.