I've started a new community, scotus_news.

Intended for Supreme Court news and links (to op-ed articles, decisions, cases, and gossip about possible retirements or whatever) - no rants, discussion limited to comments.

If you're interested, please join and post.

Thanks.

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Open Source National Law Project (x-post)
Hi, I'm going to Oglethorpe University, and one of my 4 courses is Business Law I.

Well, as I do have a long-lasting interest in politics, as well as in computer technology, this particular class has inspired me to concoct this particular idea that combines law and open source in a potentially earth-shaking manner. This is what I was writing just a few minutes ago:

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What do you think?

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Constitutional monarchies and republics: a comparison
Hi, this is my first post here, and even though I'm a monarchist, or rather, a parliamentarist, I just wanted to show you guys this article: http://www.royaltymonarchy.com/opinion/articles/goudman2.html

Basically, I guess that you can say that a constitutional monarchy is the same thing as a republic, considering that the term "republic" comes from the Latin "res publica", which means "rule by the people". So in that case, why is it that a nation needs to replace its monarchial head of state with a president who, in most Third World countries, combines the powers of both head of state and head of government? Basically, such a combination makes the president of a presidential republic (like the US) a legal tyrant.

To me, it makes more sense to give general political power to the parliament of a country rather than make the head of state both the leader and ruler of a country. And since the parliament is considered to be the designated voice of the people in terms of the enactment and promulgation of laws, then I guess that it makes sense to say that a constitutional/parliamentary monarchy, where the monarch reigns overand leads (but doesn't rule) the country, and the popularly-elected legislature rules (but doesn't lead) the country, is the archetype of a true republic.

The same is true for a plebiscitary republic (like Switzerland) as well, btw.

Current Mood: busy

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so much
action here.

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Link

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Hey... I'm new here and am desperately seeking something other than perpetual boredom at five in the morning... I'm 21 and a college student from NYC... so I'm somewhat in the center of "bad" politics at this very point. I'm a healthy cross between Socrates and Nietzsche in views, and I really do believe that society needs to be made both more logical and intelligent before it is given the opportunity to take care of itself. I don't really think that society knows what's best for it. If they did, I think they'd utilize many of the tools necessary to express what it is they wanted, (i.e. Media), instead of merely following along with whatever arguments and debates they felt they sympathized the most with. If society was ready to lead itself, such unhealthy amounts of diversion would be less present and more focus would be placed on bettering the self mentally, rather than diversions served physically. I'm open to suggestion and am always ready for good conversation, so hello all... and have a good morning!

Current Mood: cheerful

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anarchists as citizens
anyone who is actively opposed to the government should be made an automatic citizen. i imagine they will be very against the League of Terrorism. it will cause conflict.

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Responsibility
I believe it is natural for most of to think that it is the Government's responsibility to protect it's citizens from foreign (and domestic) enemies.
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Is it however also the responsibility of the Government to teach children? To make sure everyone is employed? To make sure everyone has a retirement fund? To make sure everyone can find a date for a school dance?
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Where does it begin and where does it end!?
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I will think on this...I hope that some of you will also have some thoughts.

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terrorism as a cure for boredom.
people cannot be bored in a good state. they must have something to interest them and even scare them. i propose we have an official league of terrorism in the state that goes around randomly torturing people.

Current Mood: perpetually tired

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Thoughts
It's an interesting exercise trying to build a republic from the ground up. For the purposes of this exercise, I'm going to be a benevolent dictator setting up the form of government prior to turning the republic over to the people. I can do this because it's my gedankenexperiment.

Let's start with the people who live there. I like the idea of having different levels of "citizenship".

1. Residents (sounds better than commoners) - Everyone who lives in the republic is a resident, excluding illegal aliens. Residents have all the "normal" rights (freedom of speach, religion & the press, right to free assembly, due process, etc.) with the exception of gun ownership, voting, and holding public office.


2. Populous - People in the populous have all the rights of Residents plus gun ownership and the vote. All you have to do to become a member of the populous is take a test demonstrating literacy, reasoning and mathematical abilities (similar to a college entrance exam...heck, it can be the college entrance exam). Maybe we'll up the requirements to graduating college, but I don't know at the moment.


3. Citizens - Citizens have all the rights of the populous plus the ability to hold public office. To become a citizen, you must put in some service for the republic. I think 2 years of full-time (40 hours/week), paid or 4 years of part-time(40 hours/month), unpaid military or civil service will be sufficient.

I'd like to see the initial set of laws divided into crimes against people (max punishment: banishment from the republic) and crimes against property (prison time + restitution for the damaged/destroyed property) thus ending the notion of victimless crimes. Also, severe crimes can warrant demotion to resident status. I do like the idea of expiring laws, thus 20 years into the life of the republic, it will be up to the legislators to decide whether or not my initial set of laws is still functional.

Now, on to the composition of the legislature we just mentioned. I like the idea of having a bicameral legislature, so we'll go with something kind of similar to the US model. The lower house will consist entirely of randomly selected citizens serving 2 year terms. No citizen can serve consecutive terms in the lower house. Citizens who have served in the lower house within the past 6 years are eligible to run for a single 6-year term in the upper house.

To keep things balanced, I think an executive and judicial branch should be added to balance out the legislative. Any citizen who has served in the lower house is eligible to run for a 4-year term as the head of the executive branch, with the option to run for another 2 years when their term is up. Judges should be appointed to terms of at least 10 years by the head of the executive branch with the consent of both houses of the legislative branch.

Just a few notes, since I know some questions will be asked. Yes, there will be a standing army. People who opt to earn citizenship through full-time military service will be allowed to continue their service as a career. Likewise, people who go the civil service route will be allowed to continue in a civil service career. Taxation will either be through a flat-rate income tax or sales tax on non-essential goods (everything but groceries). If at any time a group of no less than 1,000 people occupying (and owning) no less than 500 square miles of land within 1 mile of a border of the republic wishes to spin off their own republic, they are free to do so.

Oh, and if residents want to hunt, they can go bow hunting...it's more sporting anyway.

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Voting and other things
Voting must take place in this Republic at some point. I propose the following ideas:

1. This will be a representational Government, not a pure democratic one.
2. The will of the people must be able to heard and effectively followed.
3. We must take special care to protect the minority from the majority. So, in only rare and detailed circumstance should a bare majority ever be the deciding factor in policy making.

Other things to consider before going to far down this road is how big will this Republic be before we ask that another - seperate Republic be made. 10,000 people? 100,000 people? 1,000,000 people? Should it be limited by people or by citizens? Should any limit be placed on it at all?

I say yes, a limit should be placed. At some point the Goverment of a large populace becomes to far removed from that populace to effectively govern them. Where is that point? That I am not sure about.

Also, how long should laws be in effect? Forever? Should one generation force its thoughts, prejudices and conciets upon the succeeding generations?

I say that a law once passed (once we decide on how laws are passed) are only valid for 20 years. After 20 years they must be repassed. Good laws that make sense will be passed, strange or outdated laws will not be. This will keep our laws relevent to our times and our attitudes while never forever putting a bad law in place or making it overly difficult to overcome it. Any thoughts on that?

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Perhaps somebody else
has something to say about this:

2 or 4 years?

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I need to update
This place. Of course anybody can update it. But I will do something soon.

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Limit to size
At some point things become too large to effectively manage. Perhaps we should consider that the Republic be limited to a certain size for its own good. Another Republic can be born when one grows too large. The various Republics could sort of form a league together for mutual trade and protection. This is not unlike the original concept for the Athenian League or even United States. However unlike the United States we must consider the Republic first and any sort of Federal Government as secondary, weaker unit. Much like the U.N. is to the U.S. or Australia. I mean that to say that the U.N. is a council, a place to meet and agree upon mutually agreed upon actions and whatnot but it does not drive the independent states or Republics that make up its body. What do you all think of this?

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Yo, is This Thing On?
So when are we going to get some debating going on up in here?

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About the community
This place is now open.

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About Taxes, Goverment Pay and nothing else
I was thinking that every year the Republic should produce an itemized list of where each penny was spent in the Government.
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And! more so, that each increase in Tax would have to be approved by the people. This way if the Government wanted to spend more money on say...NASA, but didn't want to re-appropriate money that was going into Oil Drilling Research, they could create a bill before the people to raise taxes X% to spend on NASA. And at the end of the year, the itemized list should (will) reflect that increased spending in NASA.

I also figured we should allow the Government a certain % of monies to be invested in Black Agencies. Something like NSA, or CIA, where only the overall budget is known but actually spending per Agency is not.
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The Government will have a limit on service. Meaning a "Congressman" (actually positions in Government not yet decided) can only serve maybe 5 terms and that is it.
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Based on the fact that only the people can give the Government more money (raise more taxes), only the people can give the Government a raise. It should be expressly stated that the Government can not under any reasons re appropriate funds from one area to increase its own salary or benefits.
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That is my ideas for now.

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Creation of a Republic
This is a concept, people. What you have done in your personal life is largely unimportant to this community and what it is about. Please keep up.
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Thank you.

Current Mood: annoyed

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Who is a Citizen?
I propose the following rules concerning Citizenship:

1) All persons are eligible to become a Citizen.

2) One cannot be born a Citizen. All persons who are born or immigrate to the Republic are Commoners.

3) Only by doing one or more of the following actions can one become a Citizen
   A) Owning Land.
   B) Serving honorably in the Military for a period of not less than 2 years.
   C) Serving honorably in Community Service for a period of not less than 4 years.

4) All Citizens who have been convicted of a Felony Crime will lose Citizenship status. They will be reclassified in the Commoner Status.

5) All Citizens who fail to vote on any election or general ballot of any kind for period of more than 3 consecutive years will lose Citizenship status. They will be reclassified in the Populus Status.
   A) Only by re-serving in the Military or Community Service can one change from Populus to Citizen status.

6) Only Citizens or Populus can vote.

7) Only Citizens can hold Public Office.
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Welcome to The Republic

Here at The Republic our goal is to define the ways and means a perfect Republic will operate.

Who will be Citizens?
Will it be a representational Republic?
Will Political Parties be allowed?
How is Citizenship granted?

These are just a few of the questions we seek to answer.

This is a humble exercise, though to participate requires a certain amount of arrogance to presuppose knowledge of what is or would make the perfect Republic.

Let the debates begin.

Current Mood: accomplished

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