> The role of ordinary people in such transformation is not that of initiators or principal actors, but as followers and supporters of one elite or another. Hm

> The role of ordinary people in such transformation is not that of initiators or principal actors, but as followers and supporters of one elite or another. Hmm. I saw a fun talk years back. Ottoman Egyptian farmers using strikes to discipline local elites. If say a dominant local family was abusing power to general dissatisfaction, people would leave the village, staying with kin in nearby villages. The drop in village production would bring an Ottoman official to town, with little patience for local elites: "you will fix this, or else". So differential support of overlapping elites is perhaps richer in possibilities than that quote suggests.