Explore "The Syndic" by C.M. Kornbluth on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
There have been a thousand tales of future Utopias and / possible civilizations. They have been ruled by benevolent / dictatorships and pure democracies, every form of government from / extreme right to absolute left. Unique among these is the easy-going / semi-anarchistic society ruled by THE SYNDIC.
Charles Orsino was learning the business from the ground up -- even though "up" would never be very high. He had in his veins only a drop or two of Falcaro blood: enough so that room had to be made for him; not enough for it to be a great dearth of room. Counting heavily on the good will of F. W. Taylor, who had taken a fancy to him when he lost his parents in the Brookhaven Reactor explosion of '83, he might rise to a rather responsible position in Alky, Horsewire, Callgirl, recruitment and Retirement or whatever line he showed an aptitude for. But at 22 one spring day, he was merely serving a tour of duty as bagman attached to the 101st New York Police Precinct. A junior member of the Syndic customarily handled that job; you couldn't trust the cops not to squeeze their customers and pocket the difference.