Constitution

Summary
The constitutional domain of a state defines the state, represents the state towards other states, organises the state and is headed by the president.

This applies to the state as a whole but also to the smallest state units is the basic communities, then the higher-order communities (that may be called quarters, regions, cantons, provinces, ...) until to the one top-level community which is called the state.

The definitional rules and tasks begin with defining the official languages, giving the state a name and defining the confines in accordance with neighbouring states. Then, the inside is structured and organised into plots, buildings and floors, basic communities and higher-order communities.

The organisational rules and tasks mainly say that the president must call and lead the community meetings where decisions must be taken and ensure that the other representatives work. There can be no delayed decisions, meetings take as long as all pending issues are decided.

Finally, the representational rules and tasks apply when other states representatives officially visit a stable state or issues are to be discussed with other states. Note that a stable state cannot sign contracts or any other binding regulations with other states, except confines usage contracts. Stable states, however, can merge with other stable states.

Highlights

 * Two official languages for all - of which one must be the world language.
 * Clear borders and no claims on 'foreign' territory.
 * All neighbour and other states are treated the same and in peace - the stable state stays military neutral in all cases.
 * Democratic and peaceful split and merge processes of communities and with other states.
 * A simplified and unified calendar, work days and holidays regulation - respecting all religions but also requiring flexibility by all religions.
 * A defined proportion of land and water remains as 'wild areas' completely left to nature - to ensure biodiversity and a healthy planet.
 * Industry-specific price-competition distances are defined to protect local industries and knowledge.
 * A fixed decision cycle is enforced that does not allow to delay decisions.
 * The president and the other state representatives are not rulers but pure executives of the rules defined by all citizens.
 * The state representatives are always married couples - so gender representation is always 50/50 or close enough.
 * The legislative power remains in all citizens hands - preventing corruption, lobbyism and power-seeking persons taking control.

C.01.1 First official language of a basic community
The native language spoken and written by a majority if not all in the basic community is chosen as the first official language. It is decided by the standard democratic procedure, if not obvious. If it is not the world language, it must also have a phonetically written form using the standard alphabet, a dictionary and teaching material to learn the language for speakers of he world language. This material is developed under the governance of the domain 3 Science, Culture and Sports. It can also have another traditional writing. But all state documents must be (also) be published in the phonetic alphabet form.

C.01.2 Second official language of a basic community
If the world language is the first official language, then any other language fulfilling the conditions outlined in C.01.1 must be chosen as the second official language. It is decided by the standard democratic procedure. Else, the world language must be the second official language. The world language dictionary and teaching material is developed by stablestate.org.

C.01.3 Additional official languages of a basic community
Optionally, additional official languages fulfilling the conditions outlined in C.01.1, can be defined by and for a basic community through the standard democratic procedure.

C.01.4 Official languages of a higher order community
When an official language of a part-community is single, i.e. no other part-community of the higher-order community has it as official language, then the higher-order community, while still having the duty to communicate everything in this 'singleton-language', does NOT have this language as its official language. All other non-single official languages automatically become official languages of the higher-order community.

C.01.5 Defining the world language
If all Stable States democratically agree, the world language can be changed. We propose the fonetic inglish or baerndewch to start, both fulfill the conditions of C.01.1 which must be given for a world language. If the world language is changed then this means that there is a transition phase of 5 years when 2 world languages are supported in parallel. As soon as the new one is mastered by all citizens or the 5 years are over then the old is decommissioned.

Comments on C.01 Languages regulations
Language is the foundation for understanding each other. Therefore, this is the first thing to agree upon when constituting a community. Normally, this comes naturally. Issues might arise with defining a second language which is mandatory in the stable state. It is our fundamental believe that this, also mastering a second language, contributes to the openmindedness and peacefulness of people. And by mandating a second language, the stable state also provides the foundation for a world language. We believe that our world needs such a language. Currently, English, is de facto the most commonly spoken language as first or second language. So, we might use English. However, there is a problem with the English writing, it is very far from being phonetic. Therefore, we'd propose a phonetically written form of English as the world language. Maybe there is also another problem with English as being a language of imperialism. So, we can also propose a neutral language from that point of view: baerndewch or Bärndütsch, the german spoken in Berne, Switzerland. It has the advantage of being a natural language over some 'artifical' one like Esperanto and at the same time, it is not negatively cannotated by any nation and must be learned by virtully the entire world population. So a very fair decision.

Also, you can see that the decision on the official languages is bottom-up. The basic communities decide. This allows small languages, spoken by maybe only a few hundred people, to continue existing. Provided that there is a dictionary and teaching material.

C.02.1 Define a community's (state's) name
The name of a community or the entire state must be defined in all official state languages by the standard democratic procedure, if not obvious. All neighbour communities (or states) must agree with the name and it must be different from that of all sibling communities. The name prepended to the parent's name forms a URL under which the stable state's administration and information can be reached.

C.02.2 Define a community's (state's) flag
The flag of a community or the entire state must be defined by the standard democratic procedure, if not obvious. It must be different from that of all other communities in the world.

C.02.3 Define a community's (state's) anthem
The anthem of a community or the entire state can be defined by the standard democratic procedure. It must be different from that of the neighbour and sibling communities or states.

C.03 Define the confines
C.03.1 A land-land (including river) border must be marked with a "border stone" in cultivated areas and besides transportation areas (streets, bike/foot paths, rails, …). In non-cultivated areas (deserts, glaciers, …) this is optional. Each border stone is 1 meter high above soil, 1 meter wide and 20cm deep. tt has name and flag of the state encarved on the side of the state. The next border stone in each direction should be visible in clear weather conditions. The "stones" can also be concrete. Practically, the stones are not on the border but at least 20cm inwards. Also, the stones must carry the geo coordinates on the top surface.

C.03.2 There must be no building on a border.

C.03.3 A water (lake, sea) border needs no marking if the neighbour state is more than 10km away, The default on-water-border is the middle-line between the shores if not the international waters rules apply (open sea borders).

C.03.4 Vertically, the state's room extends down to the middle of the planet and up to the end of the atmosphere (30km).

C.03.5 In the case of unresolvable, not discussable disputes on confines of our state with a neighbour state ("claim some ancient state's or nation's land" or whatever) our state must post the border stones where it thinks the border should be. In the course of this border stones setting or afterwards, there may be military action to attack/defend the border. If the border in whole or part is maintained for 5 years, the border is automatically internationally (including the other state) agreed, including all geo coordinates, of the border (whole or part) that is there for 5 years or more. During these and other wartimes with another state, the free trade and persons exchange with this state may be restricted. The nature and extent of the restrictions of our state are democratically defined unless acute hostile actions are ongoing, in which case trade and exchange are immediately/automatically fully blocked.

C.03.6 Except for confines usage contracts (i.e. contracts to fly (possibly at limited hours and in geographically limited corridors) in the state's atmosphere, use waterways and or under-surface areas (for tunnels e.g.), there must be no contracts with other states. All these usage contracts must be open to the public be democratically accepted in the impacted regions.

C.03.7 In cases of singular violations of the confines and/or confines usage contracts by the other state (or unidentifiable) within our state's confines, then our military/police forces must catch the violator(s), only within our state's confines. The other state's representative(s) ("president(s)") must be notified, including the violator(s) identities (as good as identfiable) and evidence of the violation act. The violator(s), for just this (there may be other delicts that are committed and governed by other stablestate's rules), get a 1 month respect-violation delict punishment.

C.03.8 In case of non-singular violations, an invasion is assumed. Then, the military forces must immediately defend under wartime rules. Such invasions must be anticipated by the military forces with their anticipation techniques as good as possible, so invasions can be prevented and/or at least successfully be repelled within shortest time possible.

C.04 Define calendar, weeks, time(zone) and work hours under contract
C.04.1 A stable state uses UTC, universal time. I.e. there are no timezones.

C.04.2 Each month begins with a Monday, has 4 weeks and 0, 1, 2 or 3 "free" days to be used for holidays outside of any week (no weekday, but holiday).

C.04.3 Each week has first 5 work days (Mo-Fr), 1 Saturday (which is not a work day for most jobs, but shops, transport, tourism, health care and emergency services are at work), 1 Sunday (only transport at reduced service, tourism, health care and emergency services are at work, no shops)

C.04.4 The "free" days / holidays operate in "Sunday" mode

C.04.5 There must be no (religious or whatever) holidays in the 4 weeks of each month.

C.04.6 Each city/region defines its lunch-time UTC (e.g. 12:00 for London) in 15min. precision. Standard morning work start is lunch-time - 4 hours. Standard afternoon work start is lunch-time + 1 hour and COB is lunch-time + 5.5 hours. Special rule on date change during daylight: If the lunch-time is 02:00, then the work week begins Sun, 22:00. If the lunch time is 01:45, then the work week begins Mon, 21:45. And Saturday/Sunday/Holiday modes accordingly.

C.04.7 Work under contract: The maximum work hours per day are 16. The maximum work hours per week (any 6 days in a row, also holidays) are 80 hours. The maximum monthly hours are 240. The maximum annual work hours are 2'400.

C.04.8 Personal holidays and sickdays under contract: 4 weeks minimum. If an employee is sick, this "counts as holiday". (It is important to know that medical treatments and medications are free up to a "lower limit" of p_free_medic_cost_percent_per_year, long-time unfitness-for-work has other regulations in the section of persons administration that mitigate hardness for the individuals. Also, each employer may offer better conditions to its employees.)

C.05 Define free trade ranges (or price-battle-perimeters)
C.05.1 Goods and services are free to trade with other countries except for democratically decided "Price battle ranges" per goods/service category.

C.05.2 A Price battle range of X kilometres for a goods/service category means that any good/service of the specified category that comes from farther than the range (goods/persons transportation km) must be sold at least 10% more expensive than the locally produced good/service. This means that each local product/service can be challenged quality-wise world-wide but not price-wise. The price battle for a producer/provider of such goods/services is hence limited to competitors within a range of X kilometres.

C.06 Define the inner territory (room)
C.06.1 A stablestate is is organised in basic communities and higher order communities (cf. definition of commnity).

C.06.2 Each region or larger higher order community can democratically leave a stablestate. It needs the qualified majority >66% of the grownup citizens of the region to leave a state. Either it becomes an independent stablestate or integrates into another one according to SC.06.3.

C.06.3 The entire stablestate and/or a region can make a fusion with another stablestate. In the case of a region this is a leave decision according to C.06.4 combined with entering another stablestate which has to agree with also >66%. For 2 stablestates to fusion, all the state-wide parameters (e.g. taxation coefficients, etc. cf. the complete list in Parameters list) need first to be democratically made equal within each of the states. Then, both states need a qualified majority >66% to make the fusion happen.

Remark: Likely, it will be easiest when world-wide only 1 stable state develops, i.e. the currently exisiting states form or join the stable state country by country or region by region.

C.06.5 A basic community can decide to split-up when all parts will fulfill the requirements for basic communities. If such a part has >66% vote (counted only in the to-be-part which must be specified before) for the split, the split happens irrespective of the opinion of the rest.

C.06.6 Two or more basic communities can decide to merge based on all community-level parameters being equal before and each's >66% agreement.

C.06.7 The split and merge of basic communities are forced by the higher order community if the requirements for basic communities are violated for more than 6 months. This means that basic communites that have become too small or too large with respect to the number of grown citizens within, have 6 months time to decide on their own on what to do. After the 6 months a too large basic community is split by an algorithm that divides so that as close to 50% grownup citizens and 50% surface will result without splitting properties. And a too small basic community is merged with its smallest neighbour basic community.

C.06.8 A community (basic or higher order) can decide to switch the higher order community it belongs to with >66% vote.

C.06.9 Analogous to the rules SC.06.4-6 of split/merge decisions and forced split/merges of basic communities the higher order communites can decide to or may be forced to split or merge. C.06.10 Wild land areas: Within each community of level 2 or higher there must be 5% of the land left "wild" (for biodiversity). Within each community that covers 70x70km land area (4'900 km2) or more, there must be a coherent area (thinnest past not less than 1km) of a minimum of 30x30km (900km2). If an area turns from non-wild to wild, then no re-construction measures must be taken. Just leave it. The "wild" areas belong to the community. Property must be taken away to assure this but compensated with other equivalent property.

C.06.11 Wild lake and sea areas: 30% of all lake and sea areas must not be used for shipping and fishing. These are defined (GeoCoordinates) democratically. The stable state domain 4 Inner Security responsibles take measures (GPS senders on ships) to check this and intervene on violations.

C.06.12 Airplane free areas: 50% of all areas must not be used for flying over. These are defined (GeoCoordinates) democratically. The stable state domain 6 Exterior Security responsibles take measures (GPS senders on airplanes) to check this and intervene on violations.

C.07.1 Communities assemblies
The basic communities assemble physically on the 4th Saturday of each month. All decisions are taken that concern the basic communities citizens. The higher order communities, which consist of professional state representatives, assemble 2 times per month on work days with 2 weeks in between. The day of week of the first of the 2 assemblies is derived from the community's cardinality (1 = 1st Monday, 2 = 1st Tuesday, 6 = 2nd Monday, ... 10 = 2nd Friday). The president calls for and leads those assemblies. Based on the number of decisions to be taken, the start time is set and an end time forecasted. All decisions must be taken. All assemblies are recorded and the records kept for at least 5 years. The records are public.

C.07.2 Votes
Votes are public and prior to voting pro and contra positions must be presented. If there are no positions presented the decision is No by default and if only contra positions presented also No, if only pro positions Yes. On parameter value change decisions the decided parameter change is

new-value = old-value + (proposed change * min(100%, (Yes-percentage - 10% (parameter)) / 80% (parameter) * 100%

For other decisions, a 60% (parameter) majority for changing something must be reached.

C.07.3 Elections
Elections are treated in C.08 and they must be made at the first assembly and every 4 (parameter) years after. Note that necessary replacements in the course of the 4 years term do not require a new election. The replacements are pre-defined at election time. Also note that the first president's election is led by the eldest married couple in the community.

C.08 Organise the elections of the community representatives (aka state officials) for 4 years
The elections of the 7 representatives (1 head of constitution (the president), 2 head of persons management (the secretary), 3 head of culture, sports and science (the wizard), 4 head of inner security (the sherrif), 5 head of justice (the judge), 6 head of exterior security (the general), 7 head of finances (the cashier)) of a community are conducted like this:

C.08.1 Candidatures: The candidates are marriages (the state representatives are, normally, couples of 1 male/1 female, hence, no discussions about male/female quota). There are voluntary candidates and always the 7 eldest marriages (by date of marriage) as the default backup candidates. Each candidate marriage must provide an ordered list of replacing candidate marriages (= the political friends aka "party").

C.08.2 For basic communities: each citizen votes for 7 different marriages in ranks 1, 2, 3 .. 7 (invalid votes are filled-up with the eldest marriages). Actually, there must be 100% of the citizens present at an election assembly. An election assembly is the first community constituting assembly and every 4 years henceforth.

C.08.3 Voting Points: Each marriage voted for gets and hence each marriage gets its total of points. Then, the first 7 get elected as the heads in the order, e.g. rank 1 becomes president, rank 2 becomes secretary, etc. Also, positions 8 etc. are proxy ranks that must jump into head ranks as elected marriages get out of service (e.g. by election-up in a higher order community or other reasons). There is no possibility for a marriage to resign during the 4 years period.

C.08.4 For higher-order communities/assuring sub-communities representation: the state representatives of all sub-communities form the voting body and candidatures pool. The candidaturing (replacing lists) and voting is analogous to the procedure in the basic community. Except: when a candidature marriage would be elected but the sub-community it comes from is already (over-)represented, then the next replacment that fulfills the sub-community criterion is elected. If this is not possible, the next candidature is chosen.

C.08.5 Resignations: For individual representatives re-elections that become necessary during the term of office, the original voting and candidatures are re-evaluated and the next fitting candidate after the risignee marriage is elected.

C.08.6 Representative's salaries (no fringes, no expenses, no extras): basic community := 2 x BME (basic monthly expenses), others := BME * (2 + 1.5n)  // n = der Level über der basic community, z.B. 1 für den ersten Level der higher order communities

C.09 Organise rules management by democratic voting
All rules can be changed or deleted (note that these are rules in its more narrow sense, but also the parameters and glossary entries, i.e. definitions). And new rules can be introduced.

C.09.1 Proposal: each citizen can propose a new rule, rule change or rule deletion in his/her basic community. The proposal can also be a package of more than 1 new rule, rule change or rule deletion. The proposal must have a title, a rationale (why change), the proposed rules changes, current relevant facts and the forecasted impacts in the categories of (a) content, (b) costs (for the state, individuals, companies) in- or decreases, (c) timeline for at least the next 10 years per year and the next 100 years per decade. The assembly on which the proposal is handed-in, is called the start-assembly. At the start-assembly the proposal is presented. The presentation must not be interrupted and there is no discussion.

IF a proposal is designed for experimental use which means the changed/new rules may come into effect for 5 years (parameter) only in a region (or any higher communities, but not the entire state) and there are non-localisable conflicts with the original rules, e.g. the abolition of the army is proposed, but there are 'army-processes' that rely on having an army everywhere, then the proposal must also include adapter rules that allow the experiment to take place in accordance with current state rules.

C.09.1b Urgent proposal: A proposal can be declared as urgent. Then, immediately after presentation a vote on the urgency takes place. And if 66% or more yes, immediately the discussion, refinement and vote take place as per SC.09.2-4. Comment: A well-organised state-wide urgent proposal can be accepted and come into effect within 4 weeks: last Saturday of month x accepted by 60% or more of the basic communities, then accepted upwards in the next 4 weeks (20 levels of higher-order communities assumed), so coming into effect last Friday of month x+1. So, the next last Saturday's basic communities assemblies already follow the changed/new rules.

C.09.2 Discussion: At the start-assembly + 1 (= the assembly following the start assembly), all citizens, incl. the proposer, may comment on the proposal and propose changes to all its parts (title, rationale, rules changes - each is considered a part, facts - each is considered a part, forecasted impacts - each is considered a part). 2 minutes (parameter) per commenter and part strict time limit. The proposer may reply to each comment maximum 1 minute. The same comment/change proposal may only be made once. If still done, the commenter must pay 1 x BME to the community. Decision by the president; can be challenged.

C.09.3 Refinement: At the start-assembly + 2, the proposer, may present a changed (refined) version or withdraw the proposal.

Note: the same proposal can be made syncronised in many basic communities which will rise the chances and speed of it being accepted upwards. But this is up to organisation between citizens privately and not part of state organisation.

C.09.4 Vote: At the start-assembly + 3, the basic community votes on if to accept the proposal for (1) using the change as 'experimental rule change' within the basic community or (2) just propose it to the higher-order community to vote on. When (1) is accepted, then also (2) applies. Acceptance of changes on rules in the narrow sense, definitions and new parameters require 66% yes, parameter value changes follow the capped-proportional-change definition. If the result is 10% (parameter) yes only or less, then the proposer must pay 1 x BME to the community. The 'experimental rule change' is not in place until the region/quarter decision is also positive for 'experimental rule change'.

C.09.5 Acceptance upwards: At the next higher-order community assembly, the sub-community representative must present the accepted proposal.

IF this same proposal has already passed Vote 1 in all sub-communities, then the higher-order community result is (1) 'experimental rule change' when 60% or more of the sub-communities voted for this, else (2) propose for voting when 60% accepted this or (1) otherwise it's rejected. A parameter value change is capped-proportional-changed including all the votes of the sub-communities.

ELSE, it is proposed/presented there at start-assembly + 4, then discussed at start-assembly + 5, then voted at start-assembly + 6 and the higher-order community result evaluated at the next higher-order community assembly. This process loses 3 decision cycles, i.e. 3 months.

C.09.6 Rollback on region/quarter reject: If a proposal does not get accepted with the acceptance upwards process at the higher-order community which fulfills the region/quarter definition, then the acceptance is reverted in all communities.

C.09.7 Publish experimental rules: Each region/quarter (or higher) community must mark at its confines passages (roads, paths, railway-stations, ...) with a red 'e' that there are experimental rules in place. Visitors then must inform themselves about those. They can do so in the Truthnet or at any state representative.

C.09.8 Experimental phase: During the experimental phase which is always exactly 5 years, of course, also the experimental rules may be changed (optimised) again or reverted. Which is again the same process but only up until the level of community that has highest-most accepted the experiment. If changed experimental rules come to effect, the duration of 5 years starts again at 0.

C.09.9 End of experimental phase: The effects of the experiment are documented. An experimental phase can be democratically ended before the 5 years have passed (cf. SC.09.8, decision to revert). Then, the 'overruled' current state rules come back into effect. If the 5 years are reached, then there is a repeated acceptance upwards voting that can use the effective impacts (now facts) of 5 years experience, instead of just forecasted impacts as a decision basis. The result of this can be: (a) it is state accepted: cf. SC.09.10, (b) no further higher-order community accepts the proposal: then, the 'overruled' current state rules come back into effect. (c) at least one further higher-order community accepts the proposal for experimentation: then another 5 year experimental phase starts at this extended region (including the region that did the experiment before) according to SC.09.8.

C.09.10 State acceptance: If the acceptance upwards process SC.09.5 reaches the state and is accepted there, then the changed/new rules replace/enhance the previous rules state-wide. There is no distiction between experiment and vote mode at this level anymore.

C.10 Embassies/ambassadors management
C.10.1 Embassies per foreign state are nominated buildings. There can be only a maximum of 1 building per state.

C.10.2 Ambassadors are accredited persons, maximum 1 per state. Additionally, there can be a maximum of 10 more nominated embassy employees.

Note: we do not want to overdo it. There is not much work for ambassadors/embassies these days.

C.10.3 There can be no police or army intervention within the embassy buildings. But outside the embassy buildings ambassadors and embassy employees must obey the laws and rules and can be arrested on violations. In severe cases, those people are sent into their homestate and loose the accreditation for a lifetime.

What embassies do: Give shelter to visitors from that state. Organise (pay) repatriation. Submit official messages from and to that state (regarding the confines/conflicts, about visitors, about the merge).

C.11 State visits
C.11.1 Any 3 state representatives can decide to visit another state. (However, the stable state cannot make any contracts with other states)

C.11.2 If other state's representatives come to visit, they are welcomed and hosted by 3 state representatives. If a president comes to visit, also the state's president is among the 3.

Note: there is not much need for such visits. Maybe with the direct neighbour states to discuss/sign the confines usages contracts or otherwise discuss actions at the borders. And with other Stable States one can discuss a merge.

Events
E.C.0 Create a new stable state. This must be a well prepared step of a likely already existing state or region. One must previously pre-decide on the confines, languages, the name, rules, representatives, etc. so that at some point in time it can democratically with substantial majority, we propose 2/3, be decided and founded.

E.C.1 Change official language of a basic community

E.C.2 Change world language

E.C.3 Change name

E.C.4 Change flag

E.C.5 Change anthem

E.C.6 Change confines. Actually, this must not happen with stable states. Instead, the stable state supports peaceful and democratically decided splits or merges. It can happen when a stable state is attacked and cannot successfully defend its entire confines. When the stable state decides to stop its defensive military actions and accept modified confines, then this event can happen.

E.C.7 Start defensive military actions. This automatically happens when a stable state is attacked. The stable state then tries with all its forces to maintain its defined confines and get back to peaceful times.

E.C.8 Merge with another community or state.

E.C.9 Split a community or state (e.g. a region leaves)

E.C.10 Elect a community's representatives

E.C.11 Change rules

E.C.12 Change the price-battle range for an industry

E.C.13 Change the 'wild area' percentage - enforce wild area conversion of farming or built land.

E.C.14 Define an embassy building

E.C.15 Accredit (discredit) an ambassador

E.C.16 Negotiate/change a confines usage contract with a neighbour state

E.C.17 Do or receive a state's visit

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