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I've already talked about Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein in the past and how I think it is one of, if not the most important work that everyone, regardless of who they are or what they believe, should read at least once, even if they may not agree with it. With all that said though, I've never gone into political specifics. The core idea of Heinlein's ideal government is simply that any who wish to have franchise need to go through two years of voluntary service (doesn't have to be military) to their country. Nobody can be denied from serving as long as they can mentally understand the oath they swear upon entering service, and the service itself must be hard, unrewarding, and grueling. Oh, and you can't exercise franchise until you exit service, even if you voluntarily stay in it after the two years are up.
Well, that all sounds well and good, and it's a really great solid foundation to start from, but that's all it is. It needs much more work if it is to become a fully fledged system of governance. I'll be putting my numerous thoughts on such here. I'm sure I won't cover everything or even most things, but nevertheless, the following should cover the basic framework of the system.
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1. The Proper Mindset
One thing to keep in mind is that when designing any government, your first and foremost goal is to make it as stable and as reliable as possible. This is done by ensuring that all forms of governmental corruption are kept at bay for as long as is humanly possible. Note the latter part of that sentence there. What I mean by those words is that, in ANY kind of dynamic system of government where laws can be altered, it is ultimately inevitable that corruption will enter into that government more and more to the point of instability, and later, collapse. It cannot be stopped. It's going to happen sooner or later, and we can only do our best to delay it and prolong the good periods before the bad ones finally hit. So, when we design a governmental system, we need to first have the mindset of someone who wants to exploit the system. How would someone be able to work around the system for their own selfish goals? You basically have to think like a network penetration tester and the government as the targeted network.
2. Initial Steps
So, the day is won. The revolution is victorious. You've toppled the evil king and his corrupt regime! Yay!
Now what?
Well, this is one of the most hazardous parts of this entire system. Actually starting and initializing it. So, let's talk about what your current situation is and what your situation very probably is going to be if certain things are not dealt with as soon as possible. When the old regime has been toppled, it will, of course, leave a massive power vacuum, and if this is not handled with care, the country will start dissolving into all these chaotic little civil wars you see on TV with about a bazillion factions all vying for control. That is very very bad for everyone, period, and will completely undo all your hard work. Nevertheless though, at the moment, we'll make it simple and assume you have majority control of the military forces in the country.
The very first step is to ESTABLISH FULL AND OPEN COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE PEOPLE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. And since this is the 21st century, use the internet. Set up an official custom website and let everyone know what exactly is going on. Give them a forum to voice their concerns and grievances. You'll never be able to address every single one of those threads, but nevertheless, the site will, of course, allow you to communicate with them instantly and effectively, will show people that you want to be fully transparent, that you're interested in hearing what they have to say, and that, if anything else, you are indeed working on solving problems as quickly as you can.
The second step is equally important, and that is, YOU MUST FIND GOOD AND TRUSTWORTHY PEOPLE TO KICKSTART THE GOVERNMENT PROPER. Heinlein's mode of government is to evaluate those wanting franchise with a voluntary two years of service. But you don't HAVE two years! You need a government RIGHT NOW! No screwing around. So, you have multiple options here. One, you can handpick those you think are good for office. That's probably, uh... Not going to go over very well with the populace. Two, you can start a huge public vote and let the chips fall where they may. That's also probably not a good idea either. Perhaps the best thing to do is to combine the two options and handpick those you think would do good, and then let the people vote on if they want those candidates you picked. If not, then look for others. In any case, I'll be honest. You're probably not going to get perfect results at all, whichever way you decide on, but as long as the people picked are good enough to get you all through those first four rocky years where you won't really have any proven candidates, then it'll be fine.
3. Initial Legislation
Alright! You're done with the hard part! Now it's time to finally get down to business and start making decisions. And the first order of business is to establish a bill of rights and a constitution. Here's some of my thoughts on such.
- Keep ALL of the U.S. Bill of Rights. Actually, add to it as well. Most notably, the right to privacy and control of one's personal information. You may also want to add the right to medical care depending on how you want to do medical overall and full disability pay for those who are proven unable to work. Add an expansion to the 2nd amendment to also include ALL weaponry as long as the weapon in question doesn't affect more than 25 yards from the epicenter of the weapon impact. Nuclear weapons above a certain amount (once again anything affecting more than 25 yards) and other such insanely destructive devices will continue to be under the jurisdiction of the government and little, if anything, will change in that regard. Explosive devices are to be maintained safely and those found improperly using and/or storing them will have their explosives rights stripped away until they can prove they can use them safely and responsibly. Basic knowledge and proper usage of weaponry is now a required course in high school. Add that personal DNA records are 100% private and cannot be used as a tool to discriminate against individuals. Businesses will be penalized if found to do so. And finally, add concise explanations as to why every right is in your bill of rights. Do this for all the laws in your constitution so people won't be baffled years or even centuries later by what exactly you were really going for when you wrote the laws you did.
- The basic structure of the government should actually be mostly like the current U.S. government with an executive, legislative, and judicial branch. The one big difference of course is that not everyone has the right to run for office or even vote. Franchise has to be earned first. The other exception is that the judicial branch needs an overhaul to where it doesn't GROSSLY favor those who have money. Sadly though, I don't have any ideas on that front though at the moment.
- To earn your franchise, you need to do two years of hard grueling service. In order to volunteer, you must be able to fully understand and recite the oath of service. (The oath itself will probably be a lot like what's in Starship Troopers but it doesn't actually matter too much.) You can decide what kind of service you would like to render, though, depending on your abilities, you may not be eligible for some services.
- If you leave the service for any reason or if you have been forcibly removed from service due to a felony, you have exactly one more chance to enter it after five years have passed. If you leave it again though or are forcibly removed again due to another felony, you can't earn your franchise any longer.
- If you are accused of a felony during your time of service or if you are found to be willingly neglecting your duties, a trial by a jury of your peers (non-franchised) will be done. If found guilty, you will be removed from service, and it will be counted against you. If you have been forcibly removed from service due to a serious injury that has been cleared by a properly licensed doctor, it will not be counted against you at all, but nevertheless, you will not be able to start service again until at least three years have passed.
- Adequate food, water, clothing, shelter, medical care, and pay will all be provided to you during your time of service, but the pay you receive will be pretty meager, and your living quarters will be size-restricted. The actual hours of service you will render will be many, and if you cannot fulfill the duties of the service you have entered due to ability, you will be moved to another branch of service.
- Overseers are those who have earned their franchise and have been appointed by also-franchised elected officials. They will be supervising you and will not have any obligation whatsoever to treat you with any kind of respect or kindness. They must be fair though and they cannot consciously irreparably harm you or force you to go into harm's way. The only exception to this is wartime, but even then, any military officers cannot unnecessarily irreparably harm you or force you to go unreasonably into harm's way. Any overseer who violates these tenets will have their franchise stripped after they have been proven guilty by a jury of their (non-franchised) peers along with suffering the penalties for any of the laws that they have violated.
- Once two years have passed without the serving person leaving or removal due to a felony or a medical discharge, the serving person will be free at that point to exit the service at any time. When the person exits the service, they will immediately be granted their franchise and will be given one year of pay to get them started. If, for whatever reason, they wish to return to service, they can do so, but franchise will then be temporarily withheld until they exit again. After leaving the service, they can join again in two years.
4. A Few More Particulars
- All franchised persons running for office must officially register for election and have public dossiers on each of themselves written up along with having a psychological evaluation done by a licensed state psychologist. The candidate may also add into their dossier a psychological evaluation done by anyone else they pick, again as long as they are a licensed psychologist. Dossiers will be publicly available on the government website and may also be mailed out on request to anyone who has their franchise.
- Unfranchised persons still have a few political options available to them. For one, if 75% of the country or more vote yes on, let's call this Measure A, all unfranchised persons will be able to selectively vote on all governmental officials and remove them permanently from office, also requiring a 75% majority to remove a particular official. And the other is, every 200 years after the government's creation, ALL government officials are forcibly removed from office and cannot be elected again. After that, the unfranchised persons may vote in any franchised person they wish into whatever office they wish, as long as, of course, the franchised person agrees to it.
- The president, congresspeople, and judges will all earn minimum wage and will have all financial assets except for a single vehicle and a house (or apartment) completely frozen for the duration of their time in office. Financial trading of any kind for them will be illegal and they may not ask any friends, family, or business associates to do any trades for them. International transportation will be provided as governmental duties merit. State and county officials fall under the same restrictions. Felonies will be judged by a jury of peers (non-franchised) and, if the official is found guilty, they will be removed from office as well as suffer the penalties of the laws they have broken.
- To compensate elected officials for their time, incentivize running for office, and to help stave off corruption, a very nice retirement package and benefits will be given after their term is over. If they haven't gone afoul of the law in any major way, then they will be set up very nicely. Officials who leave after their term is over can never return to office. Once the official is done, they are done entirely.
- If an official votes to go to war with another country and the vote passes, they must serve in combat in the military as well, even if the official is deaf, mute, and in a wheelchair. They WILL serve right on the front lines somehow. If they survive and come back, they will get full retirement benefits as usual for officials along with the usual military honors, if any.
- Lobbyists are illegal. Officials can setup conferences with experts though in group.
- It is now a mandate that national infrastructure will always be improved on and hardened against attack and incident.
- Officials now have a mandate to both investigate and break up possible monopolies and oligopolies.
Well, that all sounds well and good, and it's a really great solid foundation to start from, but that's all it is. It needs much more work if it is to become a fully fledged system of governance. I'll be putting my numerous thoughts on such here. I'm sure I won't cover everything or even most things, but nevertheless, the following should cover the basic framework of the system.
-
1. The Proper Mindset
One thing to keep in mind is that when designing any government, your first and foremost goal is to make it as stable and as reliable as possible. This is done by ensuring that all forms of governmental corruption are kept at bay for as long as is humanly possible. Note the latter part of that sentence there. What I mean by those words is that, in ANY kind of dynamic system of government where laws can be altered, it is ultimately inevitable that corruption will enter into that government more and more to the point of instability, and later, collapse. It cannot be stopped. It's going to happen sooner or later, and we can only do our best to delay it and prolong the good periods before the bad ones finally hit. So, when we design a governmental system, we need to first have the mindset of someone who wants to exploit the system. How would someone be able to work around the system for their own selfish goals? You basically have to think like a network penetration tester and the government as the targeted network.
2. Initial Steps
So, the day is won. The revolution is victorious. You've toppled the evil king and his corrupt regime! Yay!
Now what?
Well, this is one of the most hazardous parts of this entire system. Actually starting and initializing it. So, let's talk about what your current situation is and what your situation very probably is going to be if certain things are not dealt with as soon as possible. When the old regime has been toppled, it will, of course, leave a massive power vacuum, and if this is not handled with care, the country will start dissolving into all these chaotic little civil wars you see on TV with about a bazillion factions all vying for control. That is very very bad for everyone, period, and will completely undo all your hard work. Nevertheless though, at the moment, we'll make it simple and assume you have majority control of the military forces in the country.
The very first step is to ESTABLISH FULL AND OPEN COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE PEOPLE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. And since this is the 21st century, use the internet. Set up an official custom website and let everyone know what exactly is going on. Give them a forum to voice their concerns and grievances. You'll never be able to address every single one of those threads, but nevertheless, the site will, of course, allow you to communicate with them instantly and effectively, will show people that you want to be fully transparent, that you're interested in hearing what they have to say, and that, if anything else, you are indeed working on solving problems as quickly as you can.
The second step is equally important, and that is, YOU MUST FIND GOOD AND TRUSTWORTHY PEOPLE TO KICKSTART THE GOVERNMENT PROPER. Heinlein's mode of government is to evaluate those wanting franchise with a voluntary two years of service. But you don't HAVE two years! You need a government RIGHT NOW! No screwing around. So, you have multiple options here. One, you can handpick those you think are good for office. That's probably, uh... Not going to go over very well with the populace. Two, you can start a huge public vote and let the chips fall where they may. That's also probably not a good idea either. Perhaps the best thing to do is to combine the two options and handpick those you think would do good, and then let the people vote on if they want those candidates you picked. If not, then look for others. In any case, I'll be honest. You're probably not going to get perfect results at all, whichever way you decide on, but as long as the people picked are good enough to get you all through those first four rocky years where you won't really have any proven candidates, then it'll be fine.
3. Initial Legislation
Alright! You're done with the hard part! Now it's time to finally get down to business and start making decisions. And the first order of business is to establish a bill of rights and a constitution. Here's some of my thoughts on such.
- Keep ALL of the U.S. Bill of Rights. Actually, add to it as well. Most notably, the right to privacy and control of one's personal information. You may also want to add the right to medical care depending on how you want to do medical overall and full disability pay for those who are proven unable to work. Add an expansion to the 2nd amendment to also include ALL weaponry as long as the weapon in question doesn't affect more than 25 yards from the epicenter of the weapon impact. Nuclear weapons above a certain amount (once again anything affecting more than 25 yards) and other such insanely destructive devices will continue to be under the jurisdiction of the government and little, if anything, will change in that regard. Explosive devices are to be maintained safely and those found improperly using and/or storing them will have their explosives rights stripped away until they can prove they can use them safely and responsibly. Basic knowledge and proper usage of weaponry is now a required course in high school. Add that personal DNA records are 100% private and cannot be used as a tool to discriminate against individuals. Businesses will be penalized if found to do so. And finally, add concise explanations as to why every right is in your bill of rights. Do this for all the laws in your constitution so people won't be baffled years or even centuries later by what exactly you were really going for when you wrote the laws you did.
- The basic structure of the government should actually be mostly like the current U.S. government with an executive, legislative, and judicial branch. The one big difference of course is that not everyone has the right to run for office or even vote. Franchise has to be earned first. The other exception is that the judicial branch needs an overhaul to where it doesn't GROSSLY favor those who have money. Sadly though, I don't have any ideas on that front though at the moment.
- To earn your franchise, you need to do two years of hard grueling service. In order to volunteer, you must be able to fully understand and recite the oath of service. (The oath itself will probably be a lot like what's in Starship Troopers but it doesn't actually matter too much.) You can decide what kind of service you would like to render, though, depending on your abilities, you may not be eligible for some services.
- If you leave the service for any reason or if you have been forcibly removed from service due to a felony, you have exactly one more chance to enter it after five years have passed. If you leave it again though or are forcibly removed again due to another felony, you can't earn your franchise any longer.
- If you are accused of a felony during your time of service or if you are found to be willingly neglecting your duties, a trial by a jury of your peers (non-franchised) will be done. If found guilty, you will be removed from service, and it will be counted against you. If you have been forcibly removed from service due to a serious injury that has been cleared by a properly licensed doctor, it will not be counted against you at all, but nevertheless, you will not be able to start service again until at least three years have passed.
- Adequate food, water, clothing, shelter, medical care, and pay will all be provided to you during your time of service, but the pay you receive will be pretty meager, and your living quarters will be size-restricted. The actual hours of service you will render will be many, and if you cannot fulfill the duties of the service you have entered due to ability, you will be moved to another branch of service.
- Overseers are those who have earned their franchise and have been appointed by also-franchised elected officials. They will be supervising you and will not have any obligation whatsoever to treat you with any kind of respect or kindness. They must be fair though and they cannot consciously irreparably harm you or force you to go into harm's way. The only exception to this is wartime, but even then, any military officers cannot unnecessarily irreparably harm you or force you to go unreasonably into harm's way. Any overseer who violates these tenets will have their franchise stripped after they have been proven guilty by a jury of their (non-franchised) peers along with suffering the penalties for any of the laws that they have violated.
- Once two years have passed without the serving person leaving or removal due to a felony or a medical discharge, the serving person will be free at that point to exit the service at any time. When the person exits the service, they will immediately be granted their franchise and will be given one year of pay to get them started. If, for whatever reason, they wish to return to service, they can do so, but franchise will then be temporarily withheld until they exit again. After leaving the service, they can join again in two years.
4. A Few More Particulars
- All franchised persons running for office must officially register for election and have public dossiers on each of themselves written up along with having a psychological evaluation done by a licensed state psychologist. The candidate may also add into their dossier a psychological evaluation done by anyone else they pick, again as long as they are a licensed psychologist. Dossiers will be publicly available on the government website and may also be mailed out on request to anyone who has their franchise.
- Unfranchised persons still have a few political options available to them. For one, if 75% of the country or more vote yes on, let's call this Measure A, all unfranchised persons will be able to selectively vote on all governmental officials and remove them permanently from office, also requiring a 75% majority to remove a particular official. And the other is, every 200 years after the government's creation, ALL government officials are forcibly removed from office and cannot be elected again. After that, the unfranchised persons may vote in any franchised person they wish into whatever office they wish, as long as, of course, the franchised person agrees to it.
- The president, congresspeople, and judges will all earn minimum wage and will have all financial assets except for a single vehicle and a house (or apartment) completely frozen for the duration of their time in office. Financial trading of any kind for them will be illegal and they may not ask any friends, family, or business associates to do any trades for them. International transportation will be provided as governmental duties merit. State and county officials fall under the same restrictions. Felonies will be judged by a jury of peers (non-franchised) and, if the official is found guilty, they will be removed from office as well as suffer the penalties of the laws they have broken.
- To compensate elected officials for their time, incentivize running for office, and to help stave off corruption, a very nice retirement package and benefits will be given after their term is over. If they haven't gone afoul of the law in any major way, then they will be set up very nicely. Officials who leave after their term is over can never return to office. Once the official is done, they are done entirely.
- If an official votes to go to war with another country and the vote passes, they must serve in combat in the military as well, even if the official is deaf, mute, and in a wheelchair. They WILL serve right on the front lines somehow. If they survive and come back, they will get full retirement benefits as usual for officials along with the usual military honors, if any.
- Lobbyists are illegal. Officials can setup conferences with experts though in group.
- It is now a mandate that national infrastructure will always be improved on and hardened against attack and incident.
- Officials now have a mandate to both investigate and break up possible monopolies and oligopolies.
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