Hello fellow Citizens of the CDS,
Please allow me to propose a new Constitution, for the purpose of:
general interest in Constitutions (for micro-nations), inspiring changes
in the current CDS Constitution, and/or ratification as the new Constitution
of the CDS.
Reading laws is usually not a lot of fun, therefore these are the points of interest:
- The representative is created by a (perhaps unique) voting system, whereby voters group and every group of a minimum size has a representative of their choice. Adding more voters to that group will not add the amount of representatives for that group. You could compare this to a factions/party system by saying that each faction has one delegate unless they are too small. You could compare this to a district system by saying that people can combine to form a virtual district and then elect one delegate; this is not territorial (but having only one delegate and the voter-groups being of roughly the same size is a similarity with the district model.) The effect this is likely to have is that there will not be one or two dominant parties, but the citizenry will be organized in a dozen or so parties that are at or slighly above the minimum size needed to have one delegate. This fractures the power of party bosses. In a faction/party system you can get a war about who gets to be biggest, where in each party there are many passive people and a few active bosses (it's the social reality of human behavior I guess). Those few active will try to recruit as many soldiers as they can, and then power starts to effectively concentrate in the bosses of that party. In this model such large parties are unlikely to occur; as a very large voter group they would only have one delegate and hence no power - thus they will split out into many, and that shatters the power of the party-bosses over their many more or less passive members.
- There is a Court system: lower and high court, somewhat independent of the Representative. Laws are in place to create a court in an emergency situation, such as there not being appointed any judges (yet), or those appointed not appearing, etc.
- The Government is formed by the Representative (that is the delegates who are supported by voter-groups that are of minimum size) appointing ministers or councils to tasks that the Representative deems necessary, these ministers or ministerial councils serve at the pleasure of the Representative. If a ministerial council is appointed (for example a 3 person council to enforce covenants, to rule by majority), that council can again appoint officers for specific tasks (for example one officer to inspect each theme present in the CDS).
The goals are to have a Government more tightly (as tight as possible) for and by the people. The voting system is as simple as it can be, no ranking needed, no need to have an opinion about everyone and every group in the CDS. Because voters support their own delegate (who serves at their leisure) and no more then that, the door is open to cooperate with the other voter-groups and their delegates. The hope is that this can pull the discussion into the populace, within the voter groups and then between the voter-groups. The voter-groups are small (the minimum size could be 5 persons, or even just 3, 2 is the theoretical lower limit), that is conducive to debate (compare a large faction with 25 people). With a small voter-group, you reach an opinion faster, and it's easier to start a talk with another similarly small voter group, and reach a cross-voter-group opinion. Once there you can go to yet other voter-groups, in search of a majority in the Representative. The model could activate the passive, and pacify the active. Activate the passive because they're in such a small club, it's easy to participate (and to set up your own voter-group). It can pacify (if I may say so) the active, because they have only so few 'soldiers' in their voter-group, and to gain standing for an idea they must debate horizontally with other group, rather then top-down to the soldiers in their faction (the passive membership). Thus a more equitable distribution of power could be the result.
Another benefit is that people who join CDS can form a new voter group and have immediate representation; no need to wait on elections. A practical benefit is that if one delegate can not attend an Representative meeting, then another of that voter-group could be voted in on a moment notice, filling the seat for that voter-group. Technically you don't even need periodic elections in this system, although it is probably in the interest of good order to do so anyway. (Naturally one person can only be in one voter group.)
Comments of all kinds are appreciated (do you (dis)agree, and if so why, does the Constitution have an error, is there a better way to formulate this model, is the model as such flawed and if so why, more down/up-sides).
It might be interesting to have an experiment with this model, which is a different form of the old factions model in such a way that some of the ills of the previous faction model might be avoided (the power-struggle to become the ruling faction, for the bosses of that faction). There is an interest to return to the factions model in CDS, if I may propose the below as a possible way to do that, thank you for your interest,
josjoha
Talenstrasse 2485
( http://slurl.com/secondlife/Neufreistadt/181/243/178 )
Constitution in SL:
You can also get this Constitution in SL book form with some additional introduction and pictoral explanations at: Talenstrasse 2485; up the ladder to the 2nd floor then straight ahead on the wall "touch copy". That house is always open (it has an office type purpose). Naturally the book is free (no cost, for the cause of justice), and it should be full perms; Constitutions ought to be public-domain after all and so is this one.
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Constitution
Chapter 1: Constitution
Article 1. Supreme Law
The Constitution is the supreme law of the nation, valid
and one throughout its territory.
Article 2. Validity
This Constitution shall be valid by the support of the People.
Nevertheless the nation shall respect in whole and part this
Constitution after ratification without deviation in particular
cases.
Article 3. Changes
A change to or different interpretation of the Constitution shall
be put two times before a vote with a space between them of at least
seventy days. Each citizen shall have one vote. The change is
ratified when on both occaisions 55% or more of the citizens voted
to change the Constitution.
Article 4. Interpretation
The supreme court shall interpret the Constitution in a particular
case.
Chapter 2: Representative Council
Article 1. Representative
A Representative in which all citizens have an equal influence shall
be formed, to see after the common interest, to resolve where people
come into conflict, and to protect the rights of each citizen.
Article 2. Voting
Those citizens combining together freely into a group of minimum size
shall be represented by a citizen of their choosing. At any moment
may they disband this voter group, and re-appoint their representative.
Article 2.1 Minimum size
This minimum size shall be determined by Referendum.
Article 2.2 Administrator
Every voter group appoints one of their own to be the responsible
administrator, who shall maintain a list of who is in that group.
The Representative Council or its officer must be provided with this
list promptly when requested.
Article 2.2 Term
Every half year a new General election is required.
Article 3. Structure
The representatives form a council of equals.
Article 3.1 Chair person
They shall choose from between them a chair person to chair the
meetings and maintain order, who shall have the right to expell
an member for excessively disturbing council order after an
official warning for the remainder of the subject under discussion
Article 3.2 Departments of Government
The Representative Council may appoint officers or councils for
special Government tasks, to work on their behalf and under
the guidance and control of the Representative Council.
Article 3.2.1 Department council
A Department Council may appoint officers for special tasks,
to be carried out on their behalf..
Chapter 3: Balanced Referendum
Article 1. Voters
The Referendum gives every citizen one vote. The abstentions
are given to the Representative Council, each Representative
votes an equal share of these abstentions. The combined tally
is the end-result.
Article 2 Vote form
The method of retreiving the answers must allow for an open
format answer of a length of at least 20 words.
Article 3 Initiation
A referendum shall take place when a petition worthy of 10%
of the citizenry is submitted to the Representative Council,
or if a majority of the Representative Council calls for it.
Chapter 4: Judiciary
Article 1. Lower court
Lower court Judges are proposed by the Supreme Court,
and are confirmed in office by the Representative Council.
Article 1.1 tenure
The lower court Judges are in office for the term of the
Government appointed them, and the term of the next
Government.
Article 1.2 chamber
All lower court cases are presided over by three judges.
Article 1.3 quality
Lower Court Judges are of good character and in good standing
with most or all of the citizenry. They are familiar with law
in general, the law of this nation, and the principles of a
fair trial.
Article 2 High Court
High court Judges are proposed by the current Representative Council
and are confirmed on approval by the next Representative Council.
Article 2.1 tenure
High Court Judges are in office until there are more then seven
appointed, at which point the last to be appointed is retired.
Article 2.2 chamber
All High Court cases are presided over by five judges, who shall
be chosen to hear a case by lottery if more then five make themselves
available.
Article 2.3 quality
High Court Judges have served as lower court judges, unless
none can be found. High Court Judges are of good character,
and in good standing with most or all of the citizenry.
Article 3 Objectivity
A Judge can not hear a case in which the Judge has personal
entanglements or vested interests.
Article 4 emergency Judges
When no Judges can be found and a case can not be postponed,
then two laymen Judges will take the place of one Judge on
the case at hand, who are appointed by the Representative Council
for that court case with a two third majority, selected for their
relatively neutral position to the subject of the case.
Article 4.1 Peoples court
If the search for laymen Judges (Chapter 4, Article 4) remains
unsuccesful, and a search outside the bounds of the citizenry
has not yielded the nation a Judge, then the People must hear the
case, deciding it by Balanced Referendum (see Chapter 3).
Chapter 5.
Article 1. Speech
Freedom of Speech for the purpose of political debate shall
not be infringed.
Article 2. Peace
The Government shall not infringe on the peace of the home
of the citizenry.
Article 3 Rule of Law
None shall be placed or place themselves above this law, or the
law the Representative Council shall legislate; and none shall
be targeted especially for legislation but all law shall be issued
in general for all citizens of the nation.
Article 4 Citizenship
The Representative Council shall define citizenship by law, in
such a way that the People who are born live and work their lives
are One People under Law. No person shall have its citizenship
involuntarily revoked than until after a Court verdict and its
associated appeals are completed.
Article 5 fair trial
At their behest all citizens are granted competent legal council
and representation in court.
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Written by Jos Boersema / Josjoha Resident, on 26 august 2013,
in an attempt to break the record on Constitution writing 
(44 minutes, first version; once later corrected (Judiciary could be controlled
by current representative.) Target nation is Confederation
of Democratic Simulators, which is a virtual Republic in a 3D
computerspace Universe. The challenge here is to have a complete
Constitution for a small group of (active) people in the order
of 10 to 30. One additional law is necessary to make this model work
for up to 27 million people (a full RL nation), which steps the Representative
once. The object is only to form a Government, the economy is ignored.
Copyright: I hereby release this work into the public domain.
You are free to modify, redistribute, sell, use, and so on.
Jos Boersema.
http://www.law4.org/post/005/DA_governm ... nstitution
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