Abstract

This article argues that Hobbes can be considered Machiavellian, although not in the usual meaning of the term (a meaning to which Machiavelli himself did not adhere), that is the reduction of politics to the recourse to force and deceit. Hobbes’ Machiavellism is not to be found only where it would be expected (political realism, the need to use force and trickery) but also where it is not usually sought: in recognizing that the sovereign has to take his people into account and to act in their favour, if only for self-serving reasons.