Okay. I admit it. Calling Machiavelli a hero of workplace safety is a bit of a stretch. But the man that Richard cites above is a character whose life and writings are not without relevance to safety management.

Niccolò Machiavelli was born in what was then the city-state of Florence in 1469. Not much is known about his early life except that he obviously got himself one heckuva good education in the humanities.

Italy was a political mess at the time. The country was made up of city-states (Florence, Genoa, Venice, the Papal States, etc.) who warred with each other. Their disunity made them easy pickings for foreign states like France, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire.

Florence was in the center of the political storms. When Machiavelli was a young boy, the city was ruled by a dictatorial priest named Savonarola who ended up being overthrown and burned at the stake. In 1494, Machiavelli became a clerk and an ambassador for the government. Later that year, the ruling Medici family was kicked out and Florence was declared a Republic. Machiavelli was a big wheel in the new government and its leading diplomat. So when the Medicis came back to power around 1512, he was out of a job.

In 1513, Machiavelli wrote his most famous book, The Prince, to curry favor with Lorenzo di Medici and get back into government. It worked. The Medicis took on Machiavelli. The Prince lays down practical principles about how a leader should rule and control his people. The dimestore interpretation of The Prince: The ends justify the means and the ruler should be prepared to bend laws and morals to hold onto power.

But The Prince is not as simple as that. Machiavelli did, in fact, believe in moral limits. And he didn’t believe in power for its own sake. He recognized that the prince carried the burden of the public good on his back and that an effective leader would be better for the people and society. So if Machiavelli could help the prince do his job better, he’d be doing a service to humanity.

Still, history has not been kind to Machiavelli. Thus, the word “machiavellian” has come to be used to describe a leader who is politically corrupt and uses deception to gain personal political goals.

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