The Prince

Machiavellian is widely used as a pejorative to characterize unscrupulous politicians of the sort Machiavelli described most famously in The Prince. Machiavelli described immoral behavior, such as dishonesty and the killing of innocents, as being normal and effective in politics. He even encouraged it in many situations. The book gained notoriety due to claims that it teaches "evil recommendations to tyrants to help them maintain their power".The term Machiavellian often connotes...
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Machiavellian is widely used as a pejorative to characterize unscrupulous politicians of the sort Machiavelli described most famously in The Prince. Machiavelli described immoral behavior, such as dishonesty and the killing of innocents, as being normal and effective in politics. He even encouraged it in many situations. The book gained notoriety due to claims that it teaches "evil recommendations to tyrants to help them maintain their power".The term Machiavellian often connotes political deceit, deviousness, and realpolitik. On the other hand, many commentators, such as Baruch Spinoza, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Denis Diderot, have argued that Machiavelli was more of a republican, even when writing The Prince, and his writings gave inspiration to Enlightenment proponents of modern democratic political philosophy. His much less popular work, the Discourses on Livy, is often said to have paved the way of modern republicanism.