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u/persequetur

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Florence's "republic" ran on a random lottery system, here's how the Medici quietly gamed it

Florence is often referred to as the birthplace of the Renaissance, so it's sometimes easy to forget about some of its lesser known stories. In the 1300s-1400s, the city ran on a lottery system for choosing government officials. It was designed with the goal in mind to stop any one family from being able to take over.

It was the Medici family that found and exploited its weakness by quietly controlling who got into the lottery pool in the first place by using the wealth from what became Europe's most powerful bank as political leverage over guildsman.

(I made a video digging into exactly how they pulled it off posted on my profile if anyone's curious)

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u/persequetur — 16 days ago
▲ 3 r/PoliticalPhilosophy+1 crossposts

Is electoral corruption maladaptive, or a selection pressure for state competitiveness?

I made a video tracing how the Medici family was able to capture republican Florence in the medieval period.

The question I wanted to raise:

Is electoral corruption actually maladaptive, or does it function as a selection pressure that produces states better equipped to compete in the international arena of capital?

Florence's "corrupt" system produced a leading bank in Europe (with its connection to the catholic church), an internationally trusted currency (the florin), and a state that could out-finance and outlast its less corrupted republican rivals.

If a government's ability to concentrate capital and act decisively is itself a competitive advantage in a world of scarce resources and rival states, does "clean" democratic process actually put a nation at a disadvantage?

Is what we call corruption sometimes just a more honest description of what a state actually requires to compete globally?

https://youtu.be/JuWHafEd9-o?si=puYWYBe0HFsbDkHI

u/persequetur — 14 days ago