John Locke believed that human beings live in a state of nature. What about Machiavelli?

John Locke believed that human beings live in a state of nature by free, equal and atonomous. What would Machievlli say about this, and why? What did Machievelli belive?John Locke believed that human beings live in a state of nature. What about Machiavelli?
John Locke's political philosophy, like Plato, Aristotle and Hobbes, begins by analysing why humans congregate into units larger than the family and how they interact with the World before the establishment of any form of political leadership. He does this to establish ideas such as the Labour Theory of Value (the idea that a man tending a piece of land imparts ';value'; into the land) and the idea of a pre-political ';state of nature'; leading to an understanding of the (unspoken or unwritten) social contract that exists between ruler and ruled.


Machiavelli, on the other hand, does not concern himself with how humans have ended up in political unions with others, nor does he concern himself about what life was like for people before they joined together. He chiefly concerns himself with how a ruler should rule and what actions and policies would lead to a Prince's long term rule and which would lead to his overthrow.