  The core of Rehberg's reform program came with his ideas about reforming the Stände. In the past the Stände had been dominated by aristocratic cliques who were concerned chiefly with their own interests rather than the public good.  They would quarrel constantly with the princes to preserve their old privileges.  The best positions were held by aristocrats, who alone had voting rights.  Despite these defects, Rehberg believed that the Stände still had a valuable role to perform in the modern state, and that it would be a disaster to replace them with a bureaucracy.  Whereas a bureacracy fostered a spirit of obedience and order, the Stände were open to discussion and debate about the public interest.  Its members were not beholden to a monarch, but the interests of their locality and constituency.  If the Stände were to survive in the modern era, they would have to respond more directly to their constituency, work more co-operatively with the monarch, and hold regular meetings to discuss and debate public affairs.  Most importantly, they would have to be accessible to the bougeoisie as well as the aristocracy, so that men of talent could have the opportunity to rise to the top.  Although Rehberg wanted the Stände to be more representative institutions, he still wanted to limit access to them.  He feared direct representation of people—the slippery slope toward the dreaded universal franchise— and advocated representation on the basis of property.  His chief demand for reform is that Landstandschaft—the right to participate and vote in committees—be extended to anyone who owned land and not simply to the traditional aristocracy.  Hence a bourgeois purchaser of traditional aristocratic land could now be accepted into the Stände. Such a proposal is very modest and cautious; but it was also intended only for the near future; for Rehberg also advocated, though for the more distant future, the participation of the peasantry in the  estates.[35] 