This putatively realist perspective can be expressed in notably unapologetic terms — as it is, for example, by Thrasymachus in Plato's Republic, to some degree by Machiavelli in The Prince, and subsequently by Nietzsche. Thus presented, it is a perspective on power from the viewpoint of the powerholder (or of claques of intellectuals who more or less grovellingly identify themselves with the powerholder).

XREF: Connects the realist tradition from Thrasymachus through Machiavelli to Nietzsche as a coherent lineage of power-theory.

Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking…, loc. 1130