Scholar authority fused with tribal coalitions could overthrow states

Evidence

The fusion of the moral authority of the urban scholars with a temporarily united tribal coalition could overturn the state. Although the urban population had no direct coercive leverage against the state, it did have this kind of moral leverage, which, in conjunction with the ungoverned countryside, constituted a kind of permanent menace for the central power. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2053