I was with you right up to the last sentence..... The reason the peasants side with the strong central government is because it has a larger budget of stolen money to give them free stuff.
Horsefeathers. In the middle ages, the king gave them nothing but a bit of respite from oppression, and they still sided with him against the nobles.
Today we call it income redistribution,
No. It's called "adjusting compensation to increase net return", and "CEO compensation." The guys running corporations have been looting them by stealing from workers and stockholders.
The wealth created by investors and workers is being tapped off by those running the corporations. Unless of course, they happen to also hold a majority of the stock.
Back in the day we called it stealing.
Today, we call it "modern management."
Would you like to see some numbers?