Ad it stands now I am actually leaning against accepting Surt's proposal. We aren't planning on expanding just yet and in any case we sort of want the council to be smaller so as to make it easier to push through reforms and react to crises.
As a compromise could we allow the Low council to put a single representative on the High Council?
I think this would be adequate. I'd also like to propose that acquiring a vote in the High Council has less to do with how many colonies you might control and more about how many resources those collective colonies can bring to bear. I don't give a damn if you have twenty-five nominally independent colonies that contribute basically nothing and still want a vote on the High Council. But if you can get twenty-five full colonies to go through a process by which they can prove that, organized into a 25/50/whatever member sub-council, they can output enough economic and military clout to qualify as a major player,
then I'd be fine with giving them a vote.
Just giving a vote for every 25 worlds is very short-sighted and easily exploitable. Any proposal that adds more voting voices to the High Council needs to have some serious justifications and stipulations to it. If a bloc of (Insert number) colonial worlds can:
1) Output useful production equal to at least 75% of the average among the Nine Worlds/Core Worlds and,
2) Where no single world can have a weighted production capability under a single standard deviation of the average of the worlds in this new economic bloc and,
3) Can prove they're self-sustaining and stable even if cut off from trade in the case of a warp storm or similar crisis and,
4) Have organized themselves into a structure wherein a single vote can properly represent the needs of all those worlds and,
5) Can meaningfully contribute to the Trust's defense forces and can adequately provide for their own self defense in case of attack,
And so on and so forth, then they should have the right to petition to gain a seat on the High Council, subject to a simple majority vote.
We need a better law than what Surt is proposing, is what I'm saying. I'm fine with giving a bloc of colonies who wish to make themselves independent from their parent worlds and can meaningfully provide a benefit to the Trust a vote in the High Council, but unless you meet the necessary criteria, I don't think it's proper to gain that kind of power.
