People vs Aristocracy

People vs Aristocracy

People vs aristocracy

Please consider the following quote and place your thoughts about it within your reply:

"For in every city these two opposite parties [people vs aristocracy] are to be found, arising from the desire of the populace to avoid oppression of the great, and the desire of the great to command and oppress the people....For when the nobility see that they are unable to resist the people, they unite in exalting one of their number and creating him prince, so as to be able to carry out their own designs under the shadow of his authority."
-- Machiavelli, The Prince, ch. IX