I don't know how this worked back then, but what prevents acts of corruption or any other kind of power abuse from the instated public figures' part? BTW, the p

I don't know how this worked back then, but what prevents acts of corruption or any other kind of power abuse from the instated public figures' part? BTW, the power itself legitimizes lobbying, so this may sound a little cynical but when you ban means convenient for corruption then it simply goes underground until it finds its way to being legit again in some form. Maybe this is the way it's supposed to be (the cynical part) - the game of life and the ever-present competition inside our species?