Last update: June 6, 2025
Originally ratified: N/a
Last amended: N/a
PART I: PRINCIPLES
Article 1: Purpose of a Constitution
A principle is a universal truth and is always applicable, although there can sometimes be a higher principle that supersedes it in a particular situation.
A rule is an attempt to operationalize the applicable principles to a specific situation. Rules can never account for every aspect of a given situation, which is why they always have exceptions. Thus, rules need to be changed from time to time as better ways to operationalize the applicable principles are discovered and as situations change. This is why the Rules section of this constitution must always have a lower threshold for amendment compared to the Principles section.
Progress consists of learning the lessons of the past and then building upon them. Just as this is the source of technological progress, it is also the source of social progress.
A primary means of achieving social progress is improving the form of governance. This is because a government provides structure to the culture of a society, and culture shapes the behaviours of individuals.
The organization of and limits on a government are specified by a constitution. Therefore, to achieve and then maintain an optimal government, an optimal constitution–which codifies the lessons of the past and allows for amendment to codify the lessons of the future–must first be established. This is an attempt to create just such a constitution. For simplicity, all amendments shall be integrated directly into their applicable sections rather than be compiled at the end. But for the sake of tracking changes, prior versions shall be archived and accessible.
Historically, the perception of government shifts over generations. It starts out as a necessary evil established only for a few specific purposes, but that hesitance and mistrust eventually morph into thinking of it as a tool to be used on every problem in society, which then justifies perpetual government expansion. Along with that expansion in size and scope comes increasing power, which leads to accumulating restrictions on individual liberties until, eventually, the populace resorts to revolution or escape, and then the multi-generation cycle begins anew.
In an effort to break that cycle of government expansion and revolution, a primary challenge this constitution faces is to preserve the government status as one that is only empowered to perform a small number of specifically enumerated functions and prevent perpetual expansion. Therefore, the government shall have no power to act, directly or indirectly, on issues or in ways not specifically enumerated in this constitution. Moreover, if society and/or technology change in a way that eventually requires less government involvement to achieve the principles outlined herein, then the government functions should be reduced accordingly.
Article 2: Goals of This Constitution
Social progress is defined here as achieving more completely a society that (1) maximizes individual liberty, (2) achieves equality under the law, and (3) encourages positive-sum behaviours.
Maximizing individual liberty: Different kinds of liberty can conflict with each other, which means that all forms of liberty cannot be maximized at the same time. The form of liberty prioritized here is “negative liberty,” which is herein defined as freedom from all forms of unnecessary coercion in individuals’ lives. This includes all possible sources of coercion, including from governments, non-government organizations, and from other individuals.
Achieving equality under the law: Different laws can apply to different citizenship classes (adult citizen, minor citizen, non-citizen, etc.). However, every member of a citizenship class must be treated equally under the laws that apply to that citizenship class. Only from such equal treatment under the law can a society of merit thrive.
Encouraging positive-sum behaviours: Selfishness and exploitation of others are the great enemies to positive-sum behaviours. Selfishness is defined as making a decision in one’s self-interest without considering the impact of that decision on others. This is an internal process and cannot be known or judged by others. Exploitation, on the other hand, is an external behaviour that involves the deception and/or manipulation of others, and it can be known and judged by others. Manipulation is herein defined as influencing another’s behaviours by inducing pain (physical or emotional) or fear of pain. Importantly, acting in one’s self-interest does not constitute a negative-sum behaviour unless it includes selfishness and/or exploitation.
In addition to these purposes, society must also be protected from outside threats to this order.
The design of government greatly affects the extent to which those goals are achieved in a society.
Article 3: Principles of Government Design
The primary values of government design are simplicity and transparency. Simplicity minimizes the direct and indirect costs incurred by government on society, and transparency minimizes the opportunities for corruption.
Transparency is also essential to democracy because a government that is not transparent is not accountable to the people. In other words, a non-transparent democracy is a sham democracy. The government shall continuously work toward radical transparency, making all government-related information immediately and publicly available as well as easily accessible and interpretable with the goal to help all interested members of society be fully aware of what the government is doing. Rare exceptions to this are possible, although the motivation for keeping any information confidential shall never be to protect an individual’s reputation or to prevent public fear or outcry or to protect society at large or any group within society from possible harm or any kind.
Historically, another challenge that all government workers–elected, appointed, or hired–face in their efforts to achieve the above-stated goals is bias and bribery. A major driver for bias and bribery arose naturally primarily because political campaigns are expensive and job security as a government worker is always uncertain, so individuals and organizations filled those needs by providing financial and non-financial benefits to government workers but usually with implied or overt strings attached. Even without implied or overt strings, the nature of biases is that they are invisible to the one who has them, and receiving such benefits biases an individual toward the source of those benefits. Thus, any financial or non-financial benefit to a current or aspiring government worker, including future promises of such benefits, provided with the probable intent to influence government workers’ decisions in their employment, are prohibited. Transparency will mitigate such issues, but the government shall also actively work to minimize the costs of political campaigns.
All government actions can be attributed to one or more of five spectra:
1. Political spectrum: Who makes the laws.
Autocracy <———-> Direct democracy
- Direct democracy, inasmuch as is practical (depending on the number and complexity of issues to be voted on), is preferred for the sake of transparency. For situations where direct voting is not practical, democratically elected representatives will be needed.
- Selection of representatives must be determined by some form of majority voting system or proportional voting system rather than a plurality voting system, which causes unrepresentative outcomes, wasted votes, and tends to polarize society into two political tribes. A proportional voting system that also allows for direct candidate selection without candidates being assigned to any one district is preferred because it allows for greater control over candidate selection by the people and minimizes the incentive for district-preferential behaviours (e.g., earmarks) in elected representatives. Elections shall be held for all positions according to a regular schedule and shall not be delayed for any reason. Newly elected individuals shall replace their predecessors within a predetermined standard timeline, which shall be as soon as is practical.
- Governments are traditionally inefficient compared to the private sector because they are not subject to market forces, which punish inefficiency. But, through federalism, a form of competition between governments operating on the same level but with different stewardship areas can be created. Therefore, federalism, with a minimum of two levels of government and a maximum of as many levels as is deemed necessary, shall be used. Fewer levels allows for greater simplicity; more levels allows for greater granularity in the distribution of power. Decision-making authority on any issue shall be pushed down to the lowest level of government that is reasonable because people closer to an issue are in a better position to satisfactorily solve that issue.
- Election integrity is crucial to the stability of a democracy. At all levels of government, voting on any issue shall take place on a single day, and means of increasing general engagement (i.e., voter turnout), especially by removing barriers to voting, shall be sought. Vote counting and result reporting shall be done transparently and only after the voting window has closed.
2. Legal spectrum: How much the laws are spelled out beforehand, and how consistently they are applied.
Rule of man <———-> Rule of law
- The rule of law, with punishments assigned according to the severity of the crime and uniform enforcement on all individuals within each citizenship class, must be prioritized.
- However, an overly detailed set of laws can become burdensome, so this must be balanced with the need for simplicity. Relatedly, the rule of law must not become legalistic; it must recognize that there are exceptions to every law, and in cases where an individual’s behaviours break the law for the sake of adhering to the higher principles that apply to the situation, that should be taken into account. Legal decisions shall be public knowledge, which provides a social incentive for individuals to refrain from breaking the law.
- All laws shall be assumed to apply to all citizenship classes unless otherwise specified. Citizenship classes exist for the sake of affording different legal requirements and privileges to individuals on the basis only of whether they have attained their age of majority and their permanence of living in the society. Each individual can only be assigned to one citizenship class at any given time. The age of majority shall be determined on the basis of the age at which a typical individual has achieved the capacity to meaningfully contribute to political affairs. Voting rights shall be restricted to full citizens.
3. Economic spectrum: Locus of decision making about the distribution and use of resources.
Centralized (planned economy) <———-> Decentralized (capitalism)
- Decentralized decision making shall be utilized as much as possible. Prices shall only be set by the market. Government price setting in any form shall not take place. This includes tampering with the value of money and also interest rates. No fiat money or fractional reserve banking shall be allowed. No form of money that the government can directly monitor shall be allowed. The only permissible form of money shall be specie or 100% backed receipt money (including electronic forms of receipt money). The form of specie used may not be specified by the government; instead, the free market will be allowed to determine this.
- The foundation of capitalism is private property rights, which shall be protected. Government ownership shall be nonexistent except for the minimum number of assets necessary to perform its functions and whatever investments it owns in its emergency fund. Whenever a transparent and competitive contracting process with private entities can be efficiently and effectively used to outsource government tasks to the private sector, this is preferable.
- Intrasociety trade, transportation, and relocation shall always be unrestricted. No tariffs, quotas, or other instruments that interfere with intrasociety free trade shall be used.
- The government shall have the power to regulate trade with parties outside the society. The goal shall always be free trade. Negotiation tactics to encourage free trade, such as reciprocal tariffs promised only as a response to the trading partner establishing or continuing any impediment to free trade, are allowed.
4. Welfare spectrum: Degree of wealth redistribution.
Zero <———-> Full
- Active forms of government wealth redistribution involve taxation for the sake of redistributing that wealth to the poor. Passive forms of government wealth redistribution involve lower tax rates for the poor. Passive forms of government wealth redistribution are preferred over active forms of government wealth redistribution due to the issues inherent in government-run active wealth redistribution programs, such as system exploitation (by organizations receiving and disseminating the money and also by the individuals receiving that money), behavioural distortions, and social and political frictions. Private solutions to the social issues that arise from wealth disparities are preferred over active forms of government wealth redistribution.
5. Liberty spectrum: Degree of freedom from coercion.
Zero <———-> Full
- Laws and regulations induce complexity, which create incalculable burdens on society. Historically, these burdens accumulate over time and cause older societies to calcify, thus interfering with social and economic progress. Therefore, new laws and regulations must be kept to a minimum, and antiquated laws and regulations must be proactively removed. Loopholes in laws and regulations that allow for legal violations to the applicable principles shall be proactively closed.
- The primary goals for laws and regulations shall be to prevent exploitation and unnecessary coercion, both of which are defined above, and also to mitigate free market failures. Free market failures can be seen from the industry side and the customer side. On the industry side, negative externalities, anticompetitive behaviour, and public goods are able to be addressed through government intervention. On the customer side, issues arise primarily in the form of customers being unable to make value-sensitive decisions, which are defined as purchase decisions made on the basis of ex ante quality and price data for each option. Therefore, government interventions that mitigate major barriers to value-sensitive decisions, while balancing the expected benefits with the risk of creating new barriers to progress, are allowed.
- Freedom of speech, also known as freedom of thought and expression, is paramount. The government shall take no part in censoring or propaganda. All ideas and beliefs, including those considered to be the most repugnant according to cultural trends, will be allowed without restriction or repercussion, with the exception of harm to the reputation of individuals through deceptive communications. Tolerance is encouraged. Tolerance is herein defined as treating all individuals with respect and kindness regardless of the degree to which their beliefs differ from yours. Any suppression of alternative viewpoints will be considered authoritarian behaviour and shall be prohibited. Rather than silencing misinformation, the free market of ideas will be relied upon to eliminate falsehoods and reward ideas according to their merit.
There shall be a regularly scheduled complete review of all laws, with an aggressive effort to remove any that are no longer considered to be essential. For any law to remain, its realized benefit must be substantial enough to offset its guaranteed costs to society, which include increased complexity, increased compliance and enforcement burden, and potentially hindered progress.
Article 4: Government Funding
Governments are typically able to raise money through five primary methods: various forms of taxation, borrowing (which is deferred taxation), printing fiat money (which is a hidden form of indirect taxation), through profitable investment, and through trade fees (such as tariffs).
Taxation: No form of indirect taxation shall be used. This is because taxpayers need to clearly see exactly how much money they are giving to the government, which helps them assess the costs of government functions more rationally. Regarding direct forms of taxation, each additional form of direct taxation used imposes further complexity burdens and economic distortions on society, so relying on a single form of direct taxation is encouraged. No tax exemptions or rebates of any kind shall be given with the exception of a personal exemption, which shall be the same for all individuals regardless of citizenship class.
Borrowing: Unless constitutionally prevented, government debt burdens tend to accumulate due to the unpopularity of raising taxes and the collusion between occasionally short-sighted societies and politicians’ typically short-term incentives. Therefore, no government borrowing of any form of wealth will be allowed. This includes creative forms of borrowing, such as early tax payments in return for a promise of future benefits.
- The prohibition of government wealth borrowing creates a possible issue. If government spending needs to be significantly increased due to some emergency that the government has been empowered to address (such as war), the government will not have adequate funds to properly manage that emergency. Therefore, a government saving requirement will be in force. The government shall save a reasonable portion of its income every year until it has saved up an emergency fund deemed of adequate size to finance the management of any likely emergencies. This emergency fund shall be saved in the form of specie and investments. Investments are required to be broadly and substantially equally diversified to minimize the risk for the government giving investment-based preferential treatment to certain enterprises or sectors. Once that emergency fund has achieved its predetermined size, that saving requirement will become dormant until the emergency fund has again dropped below its predetermined size.
- A potential benefit of such a policy is that investment income from that emergency fund may be used to cover government expenditures. This should not be an excuse to increase government spending but rather to decrease taxation. If that investment income is of sufficient size, it may be able to offset all tax liabilities and the government may continue to run in perpetuity without further taxation. However, if an emergency requires spending down that emergency fund, then the saving requirement automatically reactivates, which would likely result in a resumption of taxation to facilitate building it back up to the predetermined size.
Printing fiat money: As already addressed above, this will not be possible because fiat money is prohibited.
Profitable investment: Government may own investments in its emergency fund, but it may not directly or indirectly manage any enterprise. Accordingly, any influence over any enterprise, including voting rights, acquired by government through investments shall be forfeit to the enterprise’s non-government owners (in accordance with the policies of the relevant enterprise).
Trade fees: As addressed above, the purpose of trade fees shall not be used for the sake of government income and shall solely be used only as needed for the sake of encouraging free trade.
Budgeting is a predictive process, and thus it is prone to errors.
Regarding the expense side, adequate government funds shall be allocated to each government function to ensure complete and proper implementation and complete and proper enforcement. The funding requirement shall be determined according to cost estimates generated by a nonpartisan government body that generates realistic and conservative estimates (i.e., tends toward overestimating costs).
Regarding the income side, taxes shall be adjusted according to predicted expenses for that fiscal year. In the event of an under-estimation, additional funds shall be taken from the emergency fund, and cost estimates for that government function for the next fiscal year shall be adjusted accordingly. Unused funds, when they occur in the context of adequate implementation and enforcement oversight, indicates unexpectedly efficient government operation, shall be deemed a success by the individuals responsible, and the unused funds shall be added to the emergency fund.
Article 5: Government Structure
The organization of this government shall be in the form of three branches, each of which shall have powers that act as checks on the power of the other two branches, with the purpose of them all enforcing each other’s actions to remain completely consistent with this constitution:
Legislative branch: The primary purpose of this branch is to manage the collection of laws that specify government functions. Historically, the perverse incentive for legislative branch politicians is to create more laws, especially those that benefit their district, because doing so wins them popularity and, thus, job security. That incentive system tends toward an ever-growing set of laws. To avoid that, this legislature shall only be activated when a problem arises that it is empowered to address. And a single-subject rule (requiring each law to only address one issue) shall always be in force, thus limiting riders (i.e., porkbarreling). Legislative branch members should also be rewarded not only for their efforts to quickly establish simple and fair laws that address societal problems but also for their efforts to improve society by identifying and proactively removing or amending laws that are no longer necessary or functioning optimally. A legislature that prevents the growth of government and even decreases its size shall be considered a success.
Executive branch: The primary purpose of this branch is to efficiently, effectively, and fairly execute the laws made by the legislative branch. This branch will always be active because the execution of the laws will be an ongoing task. The President, as the leader of this branch, has the authority to hire and fire at any time any individuals working in the executive branch.
Judicial branch: The primary purposes of this branch are (1) to review every law passed by the legislative branch and reject any law that is not in strict compliance with this constitution and (2) to monitor the executive branch’s efforts to execute those laws and enforce changes when the execution is not consistent with the law.
Article 6: Documenting Government Actions
There will be six documents that comprise all government documentation:
1. This constitution
2. Laws: All laws passed by the legislative branch will be required to be expiditiously enacted as positive law in a way that integrates them fully into the Laws document, after which the specific wording of the original laws passed will no longer hold any legal validity. Temporary/short-term laws may be integrated into a separately consolidated section of the Laws document, and they shall be automatically stricken from it once they expire.
3. Regulations: This document is managed by the executive branch, and it is created based on the Laws document to guide its day-to-day execution of the laws. Oversight to ensure proper compliance with the Regulations document will also be required. These regulations can be changed any time by executive branch leadership, as approved by the President, without legislative branch involvement, although they will be subject to review by the judicial branch to ensure appropriate execution of the existing laws.
4. Civil and criminal law: This is the accumulated interpretations of the how the Law should be appropriately applied to specific situations. Rather than rely on case law, legal decisions that rule on an area previously unaddressed will be flagged to be enacted as positive law, which will be overseen by elected legal experts.
5. Financial records: This includes details about government assets, the government budget, and actual income and expenditures. The government shall track and report these with sufficient detail to ensure clear and thorough understanding in every aspect of how it is performing in its role as a financial fiduciary.
6. A list of items kept confidential, and when they will be declassified: This is for the sake of transparency about what the government is keeping hidden from public information. The principles guiding what the government may keep confidential are outlined above.
Each level of government shall have its own set of documents that mirrors the structure of these six documents.
PART II: RULES (still very much a work in progress!)
Article 1: General Government Powers
In accordance with the above principles and goals, the core functions of government are here enumerated:
1. Provide a legal system, which includes three arms that correspond to the three branches of government: (1) the legislative arm, which involves the creation of laws, including dictating the consequences of breaking them, to establish the rule of law for arbitrating disagreements, enforcing contracts and property rights, and preventing the exploitation and unnecessary coercion of individuals; (2) the executive arm, which establishes a police force for the purpose of completely and uniformly enforcing the laws; and (3) the judicial arm, which establishes a court system for interpreting the law, according to the applicable principles of each situation, to resolve disputes.
2. Provide a national defense system to protect from foreign physical attacks.
3. Regulate trade with other societies.
Any problem outside the scope of these enumerated powers shall not be addressed by government; instead, they shall be left to individuals and non-governmental organizations who have the means and desire to address them.
Article 2: Legislative Branch
The legislative branch’s primary responsibility is to maintain the Laws document, including adding new laws as necessary and updating or removing existing laws. These laws shall only address the following issues:
- Citizenship classes: For the purpose of determining the different citizenship classes and criteria for and process of making assignments, which shall be done expeditiously.
- Taxation: The only form of taxation shall be through a flat percentage rate income tax on individuals with a personal exemption for each individual. The legislature shall determine the size of the personal exemption, the income tax percentage rate, and shall clarify how income will be tracked and reported. All forms of income shall be subject to this flat taxation with small exceptions, such as for personal gifts, that would be expensive and overly intrusive to monitor and enforce.
- Disputes between individuals:
- Enforcing contracts:
- Exploitation:
- Coercion:
The structure of the legislative branch shall be as follows: A minimum of 17 representatives and a maximum of 49 representatives, with the total number automatically adjusting within that range according to the following formula: number of citizens in society divided by 30,000, rounded to the nearest whole number. Each representative shall be elected to a 4-year term, with half of the representatives’ seats being assigned to be up for re-election every 2 years. Representatives may only serve for a total of 3 terms in their lifetime.
Elections: Elections shall be held every 2 years on the first Monday of the second month. Employers shall be required to allow their employees sufficient time to cast their votes on that day. Voting centers shall be numerous enough and dispersed in a way that minimizes the travel time of all potential voters. Ballots shall be cast in physical form to minimize voter fraud, and the transfer, tabulation, and reporting of votes shall be done publicly and immediately after ballots close. The transition of power shall take place at 8 a.m. two Mondays after the election.
Electoral voting system: The entire society is a single district, with the number of seats assigned in proportion to the percentage of votes for each party. Unaffiliated candidates are considered to be in their own party. Voters may choose their top three parties and their top three candidates from within each party. With a goal to allow voters to express their true preference without the concern that a vote for a potentially less popular party will be “wasted,” any vote for a party that does not get enough first-place votes to win a seat will be transferred to the second-place or, if necessary, third-place party. A similar system will be used to assign specific party members to seats according to the rankings assigned by voters.
Ability to remove activist judges?
Checks on the president’s power?
Who determines which issues will be put to a direct democracy vote? Need an incentive to do that, otherwise elected reps will be tempted to keep the power to themselves when it’s convenient for them and to put it to the people when they don’t want to be blamed for something.
Article 3: Executive Branch
The executive branch’s primary responsibility is to maintain the Regulations document for the sake of Initial list of possible things to address:
- Trade deals
- Declaring war
- Which issues and proposed solutions shall be assigned to a direct vote by the people or to the legislature, or if the issue should be assigned to a lower level of government.
- Maintain the list of items kept confidential?
Article 4: Judicial Branch
Initial list of possible things to address:
- Overseeing the laws made by the legislative branch are constitutional
- Overseeing the executive branch’s execution of the laws is consistent with the laws’ interpretation
- Interpreting laws according to the applicable principles
Article 5: Federalism
Initial list of possible things to address:
- Levels of government, which powers are delegated to them, how they are formed
Article 6: Ratification and Amendment
Initial list of possible things to address:
- Criteria for ratification
- Criteria for amendment of the Principles part and the Rules part: Principles part can be amended by 5/6 approval vote by representatives, Rules part can be amended in response to 3/4 of representatives voting to approve. Or, equivalently, it can be amended through a direct vote by the people whenever more than 10% of citizens sign a petition for the amendment and it passes with 5/6 approval for the Principles part or 3/4 approval for the Rules part.
Clear Thinking on Healthcare 