The Plans of World Federation
Preamble
Recognizing that for millennia humanity has been divided and suffering, we resolve that a united government for mankind is necessary for humanity’s welfare. We declare that all men have the same equal potential and entitled to certain inalienable rights and a good government must guarantee these rights. We hereby design this government the United Terran Federation which resolves itself as the government of humanity. This government will do its best to provide both freedom and security to the peoples of the Earth. We ask all peoples and nations of the world to support this new government to minimize long-term human suffering which has gone for too long.
Section I: The Executive Branch
-The Presidency is to be largely a ceremonial branch but with advisory and veto powers.
-The President will be selected by popular vote every six years
-The President will have powers of clemency
-The President will remain nonpartisan
-The President will be removed in a recall election
-The President must be a Federation citizen
-The Chancellorship is to be determined by a joint session of the Senate and the Assembly
-The Chancellor will open sessions of the Planetary Congress and close them
-The Chancellor will sign into law bills passed by the Planetary Congress or veto them; either situation will result in the bill going to the President
-The Chancellor will hold power of operation over the military
-The Chancellor will appoint Cabinet members and Judges
-The Chancellor will be removed by a no-confidence vote in a joint-session of Congress
-The Chancellor must be a Federation citizen
-The Cabinet is to consist of the following and their respective departments are to be established:
The Chancellor
The Assistant Chancellor
Minister of State
Minister of Internal Affairs
Minister of the Treasury
Minister of War
Minister of Law
Minister of Economics
Minister of Social Services
Minister of Security
Minister of Education
Minister of Transportation
Minister of Science
Minister of Art
Minister of Ethics
-All Cabinet members must be Federation citizens
Section II: The Legislative Branch
-The Legislature is to consist of the Senate and the Assembly
-The Senate is to consist of five hundred members representing a Senatorial district
-The Assembly is to consist of two thousand five hundred members representing an Assembly district roughly one-fourth the size of a Senatorial one
-Assembly elections are to take place every three years
-Senatorial elections are to take place every six years
-Chancellors are to be elected by the Planetary Congress every six years in a joint session of the Planetary Congress
-Both Assemblymen and Senators can propose bills which will pass both Houses of the Planetary Congress before going up to the Chancellor for approval
Section III: The Judicial Branch
-The Judicial Branch is to consist of the Supreme Court, Regional Courts, and other lesser Courts.
-The Supreme Court will consist of fifteen Justices to be appointed by the Chancellor with Congressional approval.
-Federal crimes include treason, rebellion, terrorism, mass murder, organized crime, slavery, and genocide.
-The death penalty is an option in Federal crimes, by firing squad
Section IV: Regional Government
-The regional governments shall be divided into following levels: Regions, States, Districts, Counties, and Municipalities
-The officers for these regions shall be respectively designated as High Governor, Governor, Administrator, Manager, and Mayor
Section V: Individual Rights
-All humans are granted freedom of religion, speech, assembly, petition, and press provided these statements are not libelous and slanderous or cause violence and disorder.
-All humans will be entitled to due process, trial by jury, search and seizure, and protection from cruel and unusual punishment.
-All humans will be considered citizens of Federation
-Citizens with the exception of those commiting felonies will be granted the franchise at eighteen
-Citizens will be expected to obey the law, serve in Federal Service, pay taxes, and serve on juries
Besides being apallingly US-centric (assuming that the US way of Government is the Best Way), there are just so many problems with the idea that I don’t know where to start.
The best I can come up with before my morning coffee is WINDMILLS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY!, to be honest.
Ya know Curtis, for a conservative Christian, you sure like this world government idea! G
I agree that it would be great but for a world gov’t to work, we’d have to have a basic cultural & moral consensus. Regional gov’ts MAY work, but not a world gov’t yet.
I think there are enough religious fundamentalists, amoral scumbags, and plain old uneducated morons in the world that a world government would drag everyone else down instead of raising them up.
Your attempt at a Constitution has too many problems to even describe, but a few that leap out:
You fail to authorize any governmental branch/department/official to do much of anything… levy taxes, fund a military, enforce laws.
What powers, if any, does each branch/department/official hold?
What jurisdiction do the various courts have?
No right to bear arms?
No protection against self incrimination?
Guess we don’t need protection against quartering soldiers in private homes, since you forgot to authorize/fund a military.
Who decides whether speech is “not libelous and slanderous or cause violence and disorder.” What does that even mean?
-The Presidency is to be largely a ceremonial branch but with advisory and veto powers.
-The President will be selected by popular vote every six years
-The President will have powers of clemency
-The President will remain nonpartisan
-The President will be removed in a recall election
Sooo…we vote for President every six years, and then we have to remove him in a recall election. Not for any particular reason. Just because the Constitution says we must.
I could nitpick this thing to death, but I’m tired, cranky, and just not gonna. Let me just say that considered as a whole…it is utterly without merit.
Why have both a President and Chancellor? The president is supposed to be ceremonial, but with the power to veto? And the chancellor also has the power to veto. So what happens if one approves and one vetoes? The chancellor can be removed by the Assembly, while the president can only be removed by popular vote.
The chancellor controls the military. Who controls funding for the military?
Why bother with a bicameral legislature if the upper chamber merely represents a larger population base than the lower chamber? Does the legislature have the power to override a veto by the chancellor and/or president?
Does the judiciary have the power to interpret laws? Arbitrate disputes between regions?
Do individuals have the right to self-determination? Can regions secede from the world government?
I know this is just a work in progress, but there are a lot of flaws already.
I think a constitution should be more high-level than that. It shouldn’t explicitly specify government positions, but rather a process of how create, modify and remove government positions. Same goes for number of seats in (and perhaps even general structure of) the legislature and judiciary. And most of the rest of it, for that matter, including human rights. It should be a kind of meta-government specifying how to specify a government.
Abstract out the concrete details, so it can be easier to change and more flexible to changing needs. The constitution itself should be open to amendment, if necessary, but it should be designed so it’s rarely necessary.
Really? WTF does a “Minister of Ethics” do? Arrest people for jacking off? Issue fines for skipping Sunday School? Order floggings for blasphemy? Grade philosophy papers?
How about the “Minister of Art”? Is he a painter? Can he tell me what to paint? What kind of paint to use? Force museums to provide handicapped access? Who approves his budget?
For that matter, who are these Ministers? Who appoints them? Are they elected? How often? Who pays them…from non-existent funds, since you didn’t authorize any taxes? How long do they serve? How can they be removed? Can their decisions be challenged in Court? Which one?
Pretty much every section in the thing has similar gaping holes in it.
You’ll note you went straight for “President” and “Congress” for naming terms. There are countries which are quite happy as Monarchies, and other Parliamentary Governments which work just fine with a “Prime Minister” or a “Premier”.
To touch on the excellent point Grumman raised: Let’s assume your World Government system is implemented in Alternate Reality 4839/7B.
Assuming a “Popular Vote” system, you’re likely to find- what with a very large percentage of the world’s population living in China or India- that the World President is Chinese or an Indian. That’s not going to go over too well in… well, a lot of places, actually.
Further, the simple fact of the matter is that all the local governments are going to have to stay in place. A World Government, head-quartered in (say) Geneva isn’t really going to be all that well equipped to deal with a flood in Foreignlandistan. Certainly no better so than the Foreignlandistanian Government, at any rate.
Take a few minutes and read through the website of a major news service such as the BBC or CNN. Look at all the stuff that’s going on throughout the world. Now imagine one person ultimately having go and react to it and do something about it.
Next, go and look up the Constitutions of modern countries that aren’t the US. Some of them are very long and technical. There’s a reason for that- if you’re not specific enough, then people start looking for loopholes and things can go pear shaped if you’re not careful.
I have to disagree with this. That is at least half the problem we have in the US is that our constitution is vague in general and less than clear in most of it’s parts. We spend more time rules/ procedure lawyering than we do actually legislating. A solid constitution that lays out simple, but precise “spirit of the law” is badly needed to avoid this problem.
To the OP. You badly need to include term limits in your draft. I would suggest that no person may serve more than two terms consecutively, with a limit of three terms for an assemblyperson, and two for a senator. This is TOTAL, not per position. So to be very clear on this point, you can serve no more than three terms of any combination in a lifetime.
I also noticed that the first two major crimes on your list are treason and rebellion. You had better have an extremely lax policy if you want to get away with that. There is no way that I’d sign on to any government no matter how benevolent if I thought I could be shot for speaking out against it.
**Oakminster: **“Quartering of soldiers in private homes” is completely outdated in modern times with modern military procedures and supply chains. let us instead argue whether or not people should have the power to bear arms to protect themselves and their families from crime and other dangers to their property / livestock. I vote that they should indeed retain this right, not only as a line of defense but as a power check on the local reach of world government. The latitude of this right should not extend to felons, and should be under reasonable controls concerning the availability of weaponry vs level of training completed and permitting procured.
How does the world government feel about issues like who should control utilities, basic healthcare, and food/water/shelter?
I’m inclined to agree with our friend from Bletchley Park for the most part. And if there must be Term Limits, they need to be really long- 10 years or so.
