The Discourses

“[I]n every republic there are two different tendencies, that of the people and that of the upper class, and that all of the laws which are passed in favour of liberty are born from the rift between the two.”

Throughout the Discourses, Machiavelli points up the tensions between wealthy Roman nobles and ordinary plebeians and the political solutions that regulate those tensions. Since wealth begets freedom, those without money must band together if they are to avoid oppression. Chief among Rome’s laws are those that add to the power of the commoners, including representation by tribunes who can counterbalance the wealthy senate. 

“Also, this must be taken as a general rule: that never or rarely does it happen that a republic or a kingdom is organized well from the beginning or is completely reformed apart from its old institutions, unless it is organized by one man alone; or rather, it is necessary for a single man to be the one who gives it shape, and from whose mind any such organization derives.”

A city is composed of all its people, who have various desires and viewpoints. Only a great leader can cut through the noise, make the needed changes, and establish a republic in the face of the chaos that otherwise would reign. Since great men are rare, it is more common that states in transition will fall to the will of a tyrant. Either way, believes Machiavelli, nothing new will happen without the power of a single person to direct the change.