MACHIAVELLI, MANDEVILLE & MADISON

First, I want to recommend this biography of Machiavelli:

Machiavelli : a biography / Miles J. Unger

Second, I want to emphasize how this passage from the book (p. 267) links the 16th, 17th and 18th Centuries:

Machiavelli's analysis, derived from his close study of Roman history,
constitutes a profound rupture with centuries of political thought. Instead
of assuming that comity is the highest political good, he insists that social
tensions are not only inevitable but can even be beneficial. This concept
flows inexorably from his pessimistic view of human nature. He replaces
the ancient ideal, championed by Plato and Aristotle, of a republic of virtue
with one based on interest. To the Greeks, good government resulted
only when high-minded men came together to pursue the common good.
To Machiavelli, who assumes that all men are scoundrels, it is obvious
that this happy moment will never arrive. Instead, good government must
somehow arise from selfish people pursuing selfish ends. By demonstrating
that Rome's success was born of the clash between the aristocracy and
the people, each looking out for its own interests, Machiavelli shows how a
well-ordered society can profit when base human nature is exploited to increase
the well-being of all. This insight lies at the heart of modern democracy.
In Federalist No. 51, Madison offers his own version of Machiavelli's
revolutionary idea: ''Ambition must be made to counteract ambition ....
This policy of supplying, by opposite and rival interests, the defect of
better motives, might be traced through the whole system of human affairs,
private as well as public."

Mandeville made the same point about most people pursuing selfish ends in his Fable of the Bees.