Elites’ effectiveness in forging and maintaining class coalitions is highlighted when they periodically break down. If not quickly resolved, elites’ internal battles can reshape the societies they lead, by bringing new interests to the top or letting subordinates seize the initiative while there is no one in control. Rival elite fractions initially manoeuvre behind closed doors, trying to settle their scores without alerting or involving outsiders. But when these rivalries spill over, an embattled fraction may seek extra firepower by rallying discontented elements of the non- elite. When tactfully and tactically done, this tilts the balance with a minor skirmish which hastens the elite's dispute resolution, restoring political order. But summoning support from outside the elite is always a risk, because it involves fomenting division in the coalition that keeps the elite in place – setting one constituent element against another, or empowering a group that felt left out of current distributional arrangements.

Class division can be a cause of political conflict and social change, as well as its effect. Indeed, political history has tended to be written as one in which classes are the scriptwriters, with elites just the actors conveying their plot (with some minor ad- libbing), or impresarios who curate the creative forces. But when one class seeks to expand its role (or shrink another's) in the prevailing distributional coalition, the struggle invariably features an elite as referee, and reinforces its preferred side. And when an excluded class tries to force its way into the ruling coalition, or knock another class out, its success depends on resourcing and gatekeeping by elite members. Class divisions achieve their political and economic impact through elite fractions. Far- reaching changes occur when one or more elite fractions tries altering the supporting class arrangement – triggering a realignment that may shore up the cracks in the foundation or saw through the main supporting beam. The multiplying possibilities for elite- class interaction, and their role in contemporary political disturbances, are made clearer by empirically refining today's social class- ification.