Does this political system (for the Asteroid Belt) make sense?

Question

Heyo. Well this is my very first question here so it might be a bit, I guess crude/blunt or unpolished. Anyways!

This is for a world I've been building set in the nearish future (around 200-300 years) in the Solar System, called Warlords. So the belt in this universe is populated by three main groups of people:

Corporations: Usually Terran or Martian based who make money in one of two ways: mining like everyone else. Or controlling the space stations (ex: renting out property to businesses, selling fuel, and tariffs on shipping goods to the other colonies)

Clans: The Clans are large groups of mining families that have banded together into a couple of fleets for mutual protection. They are usually only considered a proper 'Clan' if they are able to demand tribute or 'bump' (knocking another ship off of an asteroid) smaller families.

Free Miners: This one is pretty vague. Free miners can be anything from small families with a few ships, a one ship operation, or migrant workers that go the stations to be hired out by guilds or larger clans.

Now the Hegemony (government that controls the inner planets) is the official ruler of the belt, but lacks direct control for the majority of the belt only controlling major population centers(Ceres, Vesta, etc are under their control). The Hegemony has also set prices and regulations on certain materials and businesses (ex: fuel, rations, and water) to prevent economic abuse by the clans or companies and to minimize conflict in the belt. Finally the Fleet patrols the belt dealing with piracy and other threats, but the patrols are spaced out and rare.

To actually control the stations not under their direct control the Hegemony uses their fleet and economics. They threaten stations that don't comply to their standards with occupation (which means less profits). They also make special deals with corporations and clans that cooperate giving them under the table financing inexchange for the groups helping to maintain order in the belt.

Would a system built around those three groups and the government work/does it make practical sense?

note: (been edited so some of the comments below may look out of place or look like I repeated something already said)

Answer 1

Summary: Yes

• Space is a big place. Really big. The Hegemony may well control just enough activity in the Belt to be an important player, but probably lack sufficient boots on the ground to make themselves an effective imperial force in the region. The Hegemony may "object" all it wants to powerful Clans bumping off smaller outfits, but really, law enforcement out that far is largely a game of whack-a-mole. The Hegemon is smart enough to realise this and will tolerate a certain amount of Clans throwing their own weight around. Perhaps the principal Clan chiefs even have an Arrangement with the Hegemon? They provide regional "law" enforcement and in exchange enjoy a certain amount of legitimacy of action.
• The tripartite system you've outlined has historical precedent. Back on Old Earth, the Hegemony could be likened to the distant and waning power of the Emperor: a force to be reckoned with, but not of immediate consequence; the Corporations could be likened to smaller regional powers, outposts of the Empire, dangerous to cross directly, but not really powerful enough to enforce their authority everywhere; the Clans could be likened to the various Barbarian kingdoms ever on the periphery of the civilised world, sometimes allied with the Empire, sometimes working for their own ends, sometimes settled, sometimes on the move; the Free Miners could be likened to small unaligned tribes, fleas in the imperial ermine. I see these guys as part-time miners, part-time free-loaders, part-time freelancers and part-time freebooters / pirates.
• The system works simply because the volume of space involved is too large for even a powerful central authority to rein in. There are something like 200 asteroids larger than 60 miles in diameter. If all the resources of every country on Earth could be pooled to build and launch a large mining vessel every year for the next two centuries, we'd be able to set up shop on those largest planetoids. That's a lot of energy & resources that the Hegemony must expend just to get out there! There is plenty of opportunity for smaller industrialists to fill in the gaps and thus give rise to the smaller Clan operations. The Hegemony will just about be able to outfit, supply and protect maybe half the stations on those two hundred asteroids. They'll have to, eventually, rely on the services of sub-contracted Clans to protect their other interests.
• The one piece of the puzzle you don't bring in is criminal syndicates. Surely, 300 years from now, there will be some kind of criminal activity out there in the Belt? Possibly controlling one or more Clans and hiring the services of some of the Free Miners?

Answer 2

Summary: No

• A central government (your Inner Colonies) with enough power to fix prices on fuel and rations must have enough of a presence that it would object to Clans 'bumping' smaller outfits. Either there is law and order or there isn't, it is extremely difficult to have control only in some sectors of the economy.
• Corporations by and large believe that contracts should be fulfilled. Sure, they might try to wiggle out of unprofitable ones, but general lawlessness will hurt their bottom line.

Those two factors will make life hard on your Clans.

• The Asteroid Belt is not territory where one can easily draw boundaries for territories. It is a slightly-more-dense-than-average collection of rocks on different orbits. Two major asteroid settlements may be close to each other today, far apart a decade from now.
• The idea that the owner of an asteroid also owns, say, a sphere around it with 1,000 km radius also gets problematic when two asteroids pass closer than 2,000 km. Who is entering whose 'exclusive' space? What in the improbable case that three claimed asteroids meet?

So the idea that somebody holds a "stretch" of the Belt does not work. Perhaps somebody can own one or more asteroids, but not the volume in between.

Answer 3

Summery: Plausible enough to work

Let's see if I understand this:

The organizations with the most power (i.e. money) are the Corporations stationed on Earth and Mars. While they have a lot of influence due to their resources, like everyone else, they lack the manpower to control the asteroid belt in any meaningful way. I'm guessing they can hire private military contractors to perform specific operations, but mostly have to negotiate with the clans to get things done. Still, they would likely be responsible for selling the mined ore outside the belt.

Clans are a combination of mob and union, likely formed in response to the Corporations forcing unfavorable conditions. By unifying, the Clans developed the ability to go on strikes and rally against the Corporations' mercenaries. Of course, not only does the money and power lead to corruption (tributes and extortion), but the Corporations would put a lot of effort to keep the Clans from unifying further. That's why there would be a lot of Clans that hate each others guts.

Free Miners would have it very rough. At best, they would be independent contractors that operate in less profitable zones sense the Clans would call dibs on everything else. In this system I'm describing, Free Miners would be the mom-and-pop grocery stores across the street from Walmart (the Clans).

The Hegemony would likely be underfunded and hated. The Corporations wouldn't want any authority over them and the Clans would see them as just another corporation to deal with. They might have more influence in older/larger territories, but even them they might be just figureheads. I wouldn't count of them to be able to fix prices, so the free market might rein unchecked in the asteroid belt.

Lastly, space is kinda weird for borders. When it comes down to it, territories would be determined by what the organization can control and protect, which would fluctuate a lot. Rather than actual borders, there would be contested/demilitarized zones where two or more Clans both claim as theirs. This would be a lot of fighting goes down and would probably be avoided by travelers whenever possible.

If I am understanding this right, I think the political system makes a good amount of sense (assuming there aren't any technological wildcards I don't know about) and I'd give it a go as is. Oh, but avoid mentioning robots, cause drones are a hell of a lot cheaper and more effective than paying a bunch of human miners.