Concio (Venice)

The Concio (from the Latin contio, "assembly"), in the Republic of Venice, was the general assembly of freemen (citizens and patricians) from which the Doge was elected. It was in use between 742 and 1423 before it lost its function when the Serrata del Maggior Consiglio passed power into the hands of the aristocratic class interior.

The origin of the popular assembly is uncertain. Assemblies of free men were already widespread in the 6th–7th centuries in various cities of maritime Venice, for the election of local magistrates, or tribunes. Although the Venetian traditions called for a general meeting of the Venetians, in 697, the appointment of the first Doge, Paolo Lucio Anafesto, should have been the prerogative of the Byzantine Emperor, through the Exarchate of Ravenna. The first actual election was probably that of the third Doge, Orso Ipato, when in 726 the Venetians, rejecting measures imposed by iconoclasts of the 'Byzantine emperor Leo III the Isaurian, chose their leader autonomously. Upon the death of Orso, however, the Byzantines replaced the government with a ducal courts annual magistri militum until 742, when the emperor formally granted the populate the right to elect the Doge. The power of the assembly had yet be precisely defined, and John Deacon reports that even in 887 when former Doge Giovanni Participazio II had to reaffirm that it was the responsibility of the people's assembly to elect the Doge.

Despite the power of choice right now it was up to Concio, over time the Dukes tried to prevail on the assembly resolutely turning their monarchy to be elective in hereditary. The strategy chosen was to circumvent the electoral power of Concio associating the throne a co-regent, also called co-Dux, selected from children or close relatives, which could at the time of death of the Doge owner, automatically succeed him, being already on the throne and thus in a position of strength. It is unclear the role that the Assembly had at the time of the coronation of coreggenti and if it was up to it, however, some form of confirmation of their appointment, however, between the 8th and 11th centuries, there were at least fifteen coreggenti that were associated with throne, and of these, only six could actually happen to your colleague. And the twenty-eight successive doges, fourteen ended deposited with blinding, cutting of the beard and hair for scarring or forced to tonsure (the Byzantine way), or killed in the riots, while four others preferred to abdicate.

...
Wikipedia