What does it mean when someone is being machiavellian?”
Machiavellianism is, according to the OED, “the employment of cunning and duplicity in statecraft or in general conduct”, deriving from the Italian Renaissance diplomat and writer Niccolò Machiavelli, who wrote Il Principe (The Prince) and other works. Machiavellian and variants became very popular in the late 16th century in English, though “Machiavellianism” itself is first cited by the OED from 1626. The word has a similar use in modern psychology. Machiavelli, according to the popular view, although this is disputed at least in part by most Machiavelli scholars, held that people were by nature untrustworthy, malevolent and self-serving, and thus those in power could only maintain their position through exploitative and deceitful actions. In political thought Machiavellianism was seen as a foreign virus infecting English politics, originating in Italy, and having already infected France. It was in this context that the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre of 1572 in Paris came to be seen
