Replies

In general, lower and middle class people were always in favor of the King’s justice. He might be distant, but he was also unbiased for that very reason. In fact, the King generally had an incentive to stomp on over-mighty subjects oppressing his less powerful subjects.

Yes I DO see your point but what you are describing is 'appellate' justice, the ancient "appeal to the King" of English Common Law. When effective, it was because the Monarch had the ability (usually) to assemble larger military than local nobility. Note this year being the 800th anniversary of the most notable exception, the Magna Carta!

Still, while I accept your argument, this is one of the reasons for the Founders encoding the 2nd Amendment into the Bill of Rights! Local authorities usually cannot draw upon military assets (Posse Comitatus Act) and thus end up being equally armed with the citizenry. This tends to mitigate local oppression except in historical times of de jure oppression like the Southern States racial suppression.

A real life example of local government versus armed citizenry can be found in the 1946 West Virginia "McMinn County War" / aka "Battle of Athens." A local 'Political Boss' corrupt county government sought to retain power in the face of returned US Military Vets who desired a political change. The end results was that the complacent WV State and Federal Governments were forced to take notice and the corrupt local government was changed by efforts from below and above!

what you are describing is 'appellate' justice, the ancient "appeal to the King" of English Common Law.

Yes, that ... but also a natural confluence of interest between the monarch and the commons that is found in societies throughout history and across the world.

A monarch (king or dictator) is not generally threatened by the "proletariat," whether agricultural or industrial. He's threatened by the next level down: the warrior nobility or the intellectual "nobility." There's a very interesting pattern of a new military technology - say the chariot - which spawns a warrior nobility, who threaten the monarch while oppressing the peasantry, resulting in a variety of conflicts until it all starts all over again.

That "first level down" is where trouble builds. Consider a current dictatorship, Cuba. The Castros are on top, but at the next level down, there are several factions who would like to take them down. It's possible that the recent opening of trade with the US will empower one of those factions, resulting in the overthrow of the Castros, and possibly a better deal for the average Cuban.