Quote Originally Posted by jjordan View Post
Corporate entities. By corporate I'm referring to large groups of people who each contribute to the cost of putting one of their members into a seat. This distributes power which, in turn, makes government more stable and less likely to enact dictatorial decrees. It will also tend to reduce the number of actual plutocrats on the council as the corporate entities will make it harder for these individuals to participate.

I'd suggest that the number of seats is not finite but open to anyone who can meet the base price and will commit to meeting their share of other expenses. So if the operating expenses for the year exceed the revenue raised by the annual subscription cost of council seats the members are responsible for their share of the costs. This allows for a lot of political maneuvering, including council members leaving their seat because they don't want to pay.
I'm curious why power distribution is something the people in power would want. This isn't broadly a system for public good - it's an opportunistic system of self-interest that happens to provide services for the broader population only as a side effect of doing well for themselves. I would expect having fewer other equals to influence (or bribe) would make it easier.

This also creates an incentive to control the number of seats - perhaps majority approval is required to open a new one, usually driven by the desire to build a bigger reserve for specific actions (like funding an army for an expansion push), balanced against having to share the power and introduce another player into the power game.

I do agree that incorporating a representative on behalf of smaller players (perhaps all sharing a industry and thus a common goal) is likely to take place. Whenever a seat goes up for auction, after all, the opportunity exists.

You also bring up an interesting concern - musical chairs. I buy my place in the council, pass some beneficial rulings for me and my funders, and then ditch before the next round of bills comes due. There may have to be constraints in place on how you can leave - such that even holding the seat for a short time causes you to forfeit funds or assets to cover a full year of responsibilities.