In The Prince Machiavelli announces his great moral (or perhaps we should say immoral) revolution in politics in order to make governments serve the interests of most ordinary people and not the aristocratic—or rich—few. The core of Machiavelli’s teaching princes how not “to be good” is found in his re-definition of the traditional virtues of liberality, mercy, and faith. ln re-defining these traditional virtues Machiavelli advises a political leader that if he wants to preserve himself, he should do what is necessary to secure the lives, families, and property of his many subjects or fellow citizens, not seck to reward or otherwise favor his relatively few aristocratic supporters.
