San Marino

Two Captains Regent, replaced every six months San Marino never trusts one person with the top job for long. Its parliament, the Great and General Council, elects two Captains Regent from among its own members to serve together as heads of state for six months, with new pairs taking office on April 1 and October 1, and a Regent cannot hold the post again for three years. A pair of consuls appears in a document from 1243, and since 1499 citizens have been able to lodge complaints about the Regents' conduct before the Regency Syndicate. The result is a living lesson in how a republic can guard against any one person accumulating power.