Danyl McLauchlan: a Machiavellian view of politics

Scientist and writer Danyl McLauchlan joins Kim to tackle life's big questions, ideas and thinkers. This week, Nicolo Machiavelli, the founder of modern political theory, who argued that politics wasn't about deciding who should rule, but about realising that many of the people who want to rule are ruthless and devious, so the best political systems are adversarial systems that set them against each other and subject them to scrutiny. Danyl is the author of two novels and Tranquillity and Ruin, an essay collection.