more effort into cultivating that item, to the ultimate betterment of society. He references barbarian tribes of his time in which property was held in common, and the laziest of the bunch would always take away large amounts of food grown by the most diligent. Laozi Laozi was a Chinese philosopher and writer, considered the founder of Taoism. Arguing that Laozi is a libertarian, James A. Dorn wrote that Laozi, like many 18th-century liberals, "argued that minimizing the role of government and letting individuals develop spontaneously would best achieve social and economic harmony." Humanism Niccolò Machiavelli Niccolò Machiavelli (Florence, 1469–1527), best known for his Il Principe was the founder of realist political philosophy, advocated republican government, citizen armies, protection of personal property, and restraint of government expenditure as being necessary to the liberties of a republic. He wrote extensively on the need for individual initiative—virtu—as an essential characteristic of stable government. He argued that liberty was the central good which government should protect, and that "good people" would make good laws, whereas people who had lost their virtue could maintain their liberties only with difficulty. His Discourses on Livy outlined realism as the central idea of political study and favored "Republics" over "Principalities". Machiavelli differed from true liberal thinking however, in that he still noted the benefits of princely governance. He states that republican leaders need to "act alone" if they want to reform a republic, and offers the example of Romulus, who killed his brother and co-ruler to found a great city. Republics need to refer to arbitrary and violent measures if it is necessary to maintain the structure of the government, as Machiavelli says that they have to ignore thoughts of justice and fairness. Anti-statist liberals consider Machiavelli's distrust as his main message, noting his call for a strong state under a strong leader, who should use any means to establish his position, whereas liberalism is an ideology of individual freedom and voluntary choices. Contributing literature: Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio, 1512–1517 (Discourse on the First Decade of Titus Livius) Desiderius Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus (Netherlands, 1466–1536) was an advocate of humanism, critic of entrenched interests, irrationality and superstition. Erasmusian societies formed across Europe, to some extent in response to the turbulence of the Reformation. In his De libero arbitrio diatribe sive collatio (1524), he analyzes the Lutheran exaggeration of the obvious limitations on human freedom.