Quick questions on Athens' empire, Sparta and historiographical evaluation: HSC Ancient History

The second debate concerns the empire. G.E.M. de Ste Croix, in The Origins of the Peloponnesian War (1972), argued for "popular imperialism": the empire was not simply imposed from above but was actively supported by ordinary Athenians, whose jury pay and festival funds it financed, and often by the ordinary people of subject states too, since Athens tended to favour local democratic factions over allied oligarchs. Russell Meiggs, in the same year's The Athenian Empire (1972), used the same tribute-list evidence to build a more cautious, administratively detailed picture, stressing the steady tightening of coercive controls, garrisons, cleruchies, compulsory Athenian jurisdiction, and treating the revolts at Naxos, Thasos and Samos as real evidence of resentment rather than isolated exceptions to a generally popular system.