Network States

Corruptible surface area.

A king is just 1 person. Easiest to corrupt, most likely to inappropriately dedicate resources to petty whims

A republic is 500 to 1000 reps. More internal struggle. A little harder to move resources at will. But a billionaire can bribe a non-trivial number of them.

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Getting a million+ people into the process makes it much harder for any amount of resources to corrupt a policy decision that goes against the broader public interest.

Potential corruption is inversely related to the number of people who have a significant voice in policy creation process.