Why Division Strengthens States Machiavelli’s most counterintuitive political insight is that internal conflict strengthens rather than weakens well-ordered states. The conventional wisdom, inherited from classical political philosophy and reinforced by Christian ideals of harmony, held that civic unity was essential for stability and that factions were diseases that destroyed republics. Machiavelli inverts this completely. He argues that the Roman Republic’s greatness emerged directly from the fierce conflicts between patricians and plebeians. The creative tension between these classes forced institutional innovations that made Rome stronger than states that suppressed internal divisions. Conflict, when channeled through proper institutions, becomes the engine of...