Power rules them all.
“What is at work here is not the Congresses themselves and certainly not law (indeed, the individual Congresses could be startlingly inconsistent), but rather balance of power politics. The pressures of anarchy aren’t restrained, but instead there are a sufficiently small enough number of major players that they can form into a handful (typically just two) major ‘camps’ which end up roughly balanced. “
https://acoup.blog/2021/08/20/collections-teaching-paradox-victoria-ii-part-ii-the-ruin-of-war/