I’ve heard that, though I’m partial, personally, to the idea that The Prince is sincere in its realpolitik, but outlining in part how autocracies must be brutal simply to remain operational, with occasional reference to the civic virtues of republics by contrast.
There’s a theory that Machiavelli, being an ardent republican, wrote “the prince” to deliberately give terrible advice.
I’ve heard that, though I’m partial, personally, to the idea that The Prince is sincere in its realpolitik, but outlining in part how autocracies must be brutal simply to remain operational, with occasional reference to the civic virtues of republics by contrast.
But this is from his Discourses on Livy, I think.