Usurpers court the lowest classes because dominance requires leveling all

Evidence

Here, too, is the purely sociological among the various reasons for the phenomenon that the usurper, who wants to dominate a society that is stratified by estates, usually tries to gain support from the lowest classes. For, in order equally to rise above all, he must level all; and this he can achieve, not — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 1955

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Parallels Raskolnikov’s logic: he must descend to the social level before transcending it — but Simmel shows the leveling is what the dominator actually achieves.

Broader Connections

• Some individuals fuse lower and higher elements so leveling bypasses them #qualifies (0.80) — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 1982