IE, if I trust you to make sure Elon can’t have too much power, then you have more power than he does, and who makes me safe around you? Aren’t you just large Elon (Elonger?) at that point?
Coalition politics is one approach here (and voting systems that enable it). If a coalition of Alon, Blon, Clon, and Dlon forms to keep Elon from getting too much power, then none of A–D necessarily have more power than E. If Clon gets full of himself next, then Alon, Blon, and Dlon can still coalesce against him.
You can gerrymander a result from that by changing whether you’re a lumper or a splitter. Is Wal-Mart a single entity or is it a coalition of groups that have some similar goals but who also sometimes work against each other? Is a political party? Is “capitalists” a coalition and can we say that Elon Musk is in a coalition with other rich people?
Coalition politics is one approach here (and voting systems that enable it). If a coalition of Alon, Blon, Clon, and Dlon forms to keep Elon from getting too much power, then none of A–D necessarily have more power than E. If Clon gets full of himself next, then Alon, Blon, and Dlon can still coalesce against him.
You can gerrymander a result from that by changing whether you’re a lumper or a splitter. Is Wal-Mart a single entity or is it a coalition of groups that have some similar goals but who also sometimes work against each other? Is a political party? Is “capitalists” a coalition and can we say that Elon Musk is in a coalition with other rich people?