The higher teaching is the doctrine of the Four Noble Truths and the Path, and this is the Buddhist doctrine of salvation. When a being decides to turn his aspirations in the direction of the Path, then his efforts culminate, not in heaven, but in a state which is outside the whole system of samsära.
as an agrarian republic in which states and localities held most of the power
It gave them more power because before they didn't have much power.
