Being enmeshed in the politics of the present, it's difficult to develop an abstract vision of what government and politics should ideally be. Our view is relative to our place in history and geography. While we recognize numerous errors of the present such as the drug mania and the boogeyman politics of fear, it's more difficult to design an ideal government. It's not enough to say that drug use is bad, but shouldn't be illegal or that politicians using fear and insecurity to intimidate the electorate are opportunists. Government should have a grand beneficial design. The following few principles are such a design. 1. Government's Purpose/ Government exists in order to benefit and assist, not to unnecessarily limit the people. Its authority is limited to the authority which the individual citizens invest in it. It's function shall be to respect and represent all the individuals. 2. Government's Limitations/ The government has no freedom. It is strictly constrained by the rights and powers which the citizens give to it. It shall hold property and assets only to benefit the society generally. It shall collect and disburse taxes in order to benefit the society generally and those individuals who require specific attention. 3. Elections/ At frequent intervals, not less often that every second year, every individual in the society who is affected by the government's laws and who is ten years of age or older, shall have the opportunity to vote to influence a part of the make up, direction and policy of their government. Different segments of the government shall be voted on at different times staggered over a ten year period. 4. voting/ To encourage the participation of all eligible voters in every election, each elector shall receive a voucher when he or she has voted. The voucher will provide a credit against the individual's taxes. Its value shall be regulated by law and it shall be transferable. 5. Good/ In the human character, elements which are good coexist with elements which are evil. Government should be so arranged that the good elements are aggregated and the evil elements are minimized. Government must reflect the best of the people. 6. Pluralism/ Democracy is a kind of tyranny where 51 citizens might ruthlessly exploit the remaining 49. A proper society and government is pluralistic where the rights, wishes and values of minorities are respected. To fashion a pluralistic society, groups of a suitable size, but small enough to assure reasonable diversity must have political representation. Political representation by geography is ineffective. 7. Electoral Subdivisions/ Intermediate between the individual and the government shall be units which are analogous to guilds, clans, tribes or fraternities each representing similar or common values. Each individual may participate in any number of such guilds. Each such unit shall participate in the level of government above it. 8. Diversity/ Government must be diverse and inclusive as opposed to exclusive. It must be tolerant and respect different individual roles and different life styles. 9. Wealth/ Excessive wealth is one of the worst social evils. Taxation must be graduated in such a way that excessive wealth is applied to the benefit of the whole society. It may be taken that wealth becomes excessive where an individual holds more that one hundred times the mean individual net worth in the society. 10. Prosperity/ Where excessive wealth is held or controlled by an individual, it fails to circulate and thereby fails to provide opportunity and prosperity for the society generally. 11. Power/ Excessive power is the other serious social evil. While society benefits from some degree of organization, management and discipline, no individual should hold or manipulate excessive power. Power becomes excessive where an individual has or manipulates one hundred times the mean individual authority of his or her immediate subordinates. 12. Original Intent/ It is an error to be controlled or guided by principles and precepts because they are ancient or "original." It is an error to think that the past knows better than the present. The converse is also true; principles and precepts are not bad because they are old. Generally, where a specific principle or precept has been respected or followed for generation after generation, where each new age had the opportunity to test and examine it, the principle matured by that process of successive testing, is more likely to have merit than an untested principle. In all instances contemporary persons are as competent to make decisions as were the individuals of former times. 13. Freedom/ There is no innate right of freedom. In fact biology dictates an innate obligation to society. The infant is not free to act as he or she wished. He or she is obliged to conform to his parent's society. It is biology, society and fortune which impart degrees of freedom to the individual. After some constant norm of a given society and culture, an individual's freedom is proportional to his or her assets (including intellect, strength, imagination, sanity, wealth and so forth) and inversely proportional to his or her environment (including population density, climate and opportunity). As the number of persons in a society increased, individual freedom declines. 14. Rights of Freedom/ Government must assure and preserve the greatest freedom for each individual commensurate with respecting the freedoms of his or her fellow individuals. Each individual is entitled to a rule of law where he or she knows what to expect from his government. 15. Violence/ Neither the individual nor the government shall express violence to any person and war must be limited to self defense from dire and immediate threat to the well-being of the citizens, not the well-being of the government. Neither the society nor the government may take any individual's life. Neither the government nor any individual shall possess more or greater weapons than are essential for self defense. Both the government and the individual must show respect and constraint for their common environment and for all those things living in the environment which don't genuinely threaten individual well-being. 16. Privacy/ The individual is entitled to be secure from unreasonable intrusion by government into his or her privacy. Each individual is entitled to retain personal secrets and confidences. Each individual is entitled to sexual and reproductive freedom which only he or she may curtail. 17. Expression/ Each individual is entitled to be free to speak, write, publish and otherwise express himself or herself, but he or she is bound to be truthful in giving legal testimony about an other, nor may he or she defraud another of his freedom, life, well-being or property. Expressions of grievance against the government and its elements shall be assured. 18. Property/ The individual's security in his property must be assured by legal process. Government must respect each individual's right to acquire and exchange property, to make contracts and to be in control of his or her own body. In addition, the government must assure the individual's freedom to travel and to associate with others. 19. Beliefs/ Each individual shall be free to believe what he or she pleases and to worship, if he or she pleases to do so. 20. Criminal Law/ The criminal law must, at each juncture by tolerant, moderate bilateral and rational. Since all law is an evil which curtails freedom, a diverse legislative institution may establish only those laws which are essential to assure a reasonably safe society which respects individual rights, property and freedom. Its first obligation is to assure the life of each individual. 21. Criminals/ Individuals who are perceived to have violated the criminal law shall be treated decently. If their guilt is not established, they shall not be held in violation of their liberty. Their guilt shall be established by a unanimous jury of nine citizens which is agreed to by the judge. The disposition of the convicted offender shall be regulated by the judge according to law, with the aim of assuring minimum conformity by the offender to the laws of the society and never punishes out of proportion with the actual harm done by the offense. 22. Crime Victims/ The victims of criminal offenses or their representatives may be compensated for the effects of the criminal offense according to law and in ways which are agreed to by a majority of a nine member jury with the assent of the judge, but the punishment and compensation shall never exceed twice the effect or value of the offense. 23. Imprisonment/ Offenders should be confined in prison only where there is no other reasonable means of assuring their good behavior and their performance of the obligations imposed upon them by the court. The liberty of the convicted offender may be curtailed no more than is genuinely required in order to affect the lawful goals of rehabilitation. Democracy is a delightfully untidy form of government. The reader or student is invited to contribute his/her comments and/or essays on ideal government. Under the present regime (the Republican reign of terror), your ability to express dissent may be limited. Of course, anticipate retaliation by the present regime.