The Prince and Technocracy

Though it is typically cited as the first work of Modern Political Philosophy, The Prince seems to have very little in common with the rest of that era.  For, while those works posit competing models of the best social organization, Machiavelli abstracts almost completely from any such content, instead offering advice to a ruler regarding the maintaining of power.  So, The Prince superficially seems to be a different genre of Political writing than Leviathan, etc.  Still, the contrast is instructive, since it is a reminder that implicit in the latter group is that they, too, are pieces of advice on how to rule, i. e. they are programs to be executed by a ruler, not mere fodder for theoretical debate.  In other words, they, too, are Technocratic.