Enter the Corporate State. That is, a state governed much like a modern-day western corporation. Hierarchical, yet meritocratic.
Imagine a sovereign corporate state with citizenship defined by share ownership. The more shares, the more voting power one has - tiered citizenship.
At its helm sits a dictator - the CEO, embodying the Monarchical element.
The CEO is appointed by the shareholders - in this case the citizenry, the Democratic element.
Around the CEO sit a board of directors - this being the professional managers selected for their expertise, the Aristocratic core.
Alignment would be quite simple in theory: the profit motive by way of dividends and appreciation of corporate state share value. This prioritizes long-term thinking. One could even have 5, 10, 20-year share options to further encourage long-term economic planning.
Central to this model are the two classes of shares - nominal and real. Nominally, all shares are traded freely on the open market. Real shares, in contrast, can be thought of as ledger entries tied to an individual. It is when these real shares are matched with nominal shares that the individual’s citizen rights are activated.
Citizenship tiers would reflect the number of ‘real’ shares one holds. Naturally, there would be a cap - say, 200 real shares, representing the most voting power any one citizen might have and afford that individual the highest tier of citizenship with the most citizen rights. These real shares would be accumulated through a lifetime of service. Each real share is mapped to a nominal share upon attainment - that is, for every real share that one receives through an act of service, the state dilutes the entire share stock to grant a new nominal share to the recipient of a real share. In an economic sense, real and nominal shares are functionally identical.
Let us suppose that the bottom 25% of shares (that is, the first 50) confer foundational rights such as residency, access to essential services (inexpensive ones, the right to work, and so on. The next tier, up to 100, afford enhanced privileges, such as equal treatment under the law. At 100 shares, one becomes a full-fledged citizen - this confers comprehensive entitlements such as property rights and equal treatment under the law. Once you surpass 150 shares you effectively become an elite - leadership roles and other such advanced obligations, responsibilities, and according benefits begin here.
Rights are not market commodities. One cannot ‘buy up’ nominal shares and thus acquire citizen rights. Real shares accrue over a lifetime of service to the state. One might start with a modest allocation to greet a citizen’s birth, with educational attainment, terms in the military or civil service giving yet more. Each year of work could grant further real shares, scaled to one’s salary or some other metric that effectively gauges contribution.
These rights can be forgone. Consider an elite citizen who has sold their shares. On paper, in the state ledger, they might have 150+ shares, but with no nominal shares to match, those rights are deactivated. Thus they exclude themselves from the civic realm, though they may have enjoyed a significant windfall through selling their shares on the open market.
An outside investor, though they may hold many thousands of shares, enjoy no citizen rights as they would have no real shares in the state ledger.
Thus real power - voting power - is constrained to the acquisition of real shares, and the corresponding retainment of enough nominal shares to activate them. Real shares can only be gained through service to the state, perhaps with modest real share inheritance allowances.
And it would be in everyones interest that the share price keep rising. The share price would retain some stability due to the natural dilution of shares through the minting of new shares to individuals performing acts of service to the state.
Political governance mirrors the structure of a corporate board, and while the CEO is elected by citizenry, he cannot simply place whomever he so chooses on the board - he must take his pick of Elite tier citizens. This is the ideal, but should crisis deplete worthy candidates, it might be prudent to allow contractors, with some heavy restrictions, to temporarily take up the mantle of executive power, until such a time as a worthy elite citizen is ready to replace them.
Citizens, as shareholders, retain the power to influence or overthrow leadership - the CEO and the board - although in order for our CEO to have effective power this would necessarily require supermajorities.
In the Corporate State, meritocratic pressures and financial alignment make for good governance, and good governance make for extraordinary returns. Prosperity is shared, sovereignty is legitimized, and citizens are at liberty to choose their level of civic engagement.