I did start reading the book a while back. I should give it another try. There is no perfect state, but you tend to end up with those who want power in charge. Then it depends on how much they care about the people. There are too many cases where a leader exploited their people. That's why we have to watch them...
The book is very good, you should definitely give it another read :D
Agreed wholeheartedly.
I just read this interesting piece on Machiavelli.
Very, very interesting. I suppose its a very real possibility. I'll have to read some more about that.