Machiavelli was a well-known political philosopher who lived in Italy. Moreover, he was a poet, a musician and a playwright, but he is mostly remembered for his philosophy in politics: ‘the end normally justifies the means’. This theory actually appeared in his famous work “The Prince”. Machiavelli was born on May 3 1469 in Florence and grew up in one of the most politically tumultuous period. He entered politics at the age of 25 years and started his career as a clerk. In 1494, Florence became a republic and the Medici family was ousted from power. This enabled Machiavelli to gain a post of the Council that dealt with military and diplomatic matters. This line of duty brought him to royal courts of Aragon and France and also to the Pope’s seat in Rome. (Kries, 1997, p.120). The life of Machiavelli falls under three periods, with each one of them constituting an important and distinct era in Florence’s history. In his youth, Florence was a great Italian power under Lorenzo de Medici, II Magnifico. When the downfall of Medici occurred in 1494, Machiavelli joined the public service sector (Kocis, 1988, p.184).

The republic government lasted upto 1512 when the Medici family returned to power hence making Machiavelli to lose his office. The Medici once again took the rule of Florence from 1512 to 1527 before they were once again driven out of power. This saw the period of Machiavelli’s increased influence and activity but it was unfortunate that he died in a few weeks time after the expulsion of the Medici (Kocis, 1988, p.193).

Machiavelli’s actions and ways of ruling were far from being humanistic. The geographical territory of Italy had for a long time been divided into five major and other many minor states. The result of this had been a constant jockeying for power and shifting of alliances frequently. In order to keep posted on the developments of friends and rivals, the government invented a new type of political analyst; the resident Ambassador. Before then, ambassadors would be sent for temporary assignments like negotiating for weddings and treaties. For the case of resident ambassadors, they were present constantly so as to assess developments. Such a professionalized analysis of politics by Machiavelli could develop in a system of government, which is characterized by several, and nearly equal competing powers. This system of conducting politics further led to divisions amongst people with respect to different competing powers (Kocis, 1988, p.194).

Another issue that disqualifies Machiavelli as a humanist is the fact that he “turned his back” on traditional ‘mirror of princes’ literature” (Kocis, 1988, p.196). The literature which is parallel to courtly societies that are outside Western Europe tackled the issue of education of the Prince and how he could come to embrace moral perfection. The literature asserted that “the pursuit of what is just would result to the political success of the prince” (Kocis, 1988, p.198). Instead, Machiavelli rejected the whole approach and could justify his actions by the following reasons.

First, he argued that the conventional moral teaching proved to be a complete oddity which was not required for one to succeed politically. He argued that rulers/leaders must know how to lie, murder and practice arts of hypocrisy and therefore seem not truthful or just (Kocis, 1988, p.206). He said that it was nearly impossible to try and reconcile political necessity with the moral excellence. This characteristic cynicism of Machiavelli was a result of his radical uncertainty as far as what the best political system should be like. This characteristic of Machiavelli shows that he hardly considered humanistic values and that he acted only for his own good and not for the good of the people of Italy. (Kocis, 1988, p.210).