HeavenlyPossum on Nostr: In the Venetian Republic, there were elections for the Doge—the Duke who ruled ...

In the Venetian Republic, there were elections for the Doge—the Duke who ruled Venice for life. Here’s how those elections worked:

Hereditary members of aristocratic Venetian families met in the Great Council. Thirty of them were chosen by lot. Of those thirty, nine were then chosen by separate lot. Those nine chose forty others, who were then reduced by lot to twelve, who chose twenty-five. Those twenty-five were reduced by lot to nine, who then elected forty-five. Those forty-five were reduced by lot to eleven, who then selected forty-one (up from forty after a tied vote). Those forty-one aristocrats then voted on candidates for Doge.

The point of this cartoonishly complex system was to ensure that no faction among the elites, no wealthy family, could come to dominate the rest by, say, controlling the selection of the Doge or establishing a ducal dynasty.