“Freedom is not a gift from heaven. One must fight for it every day.”
– Simon Wiesenthal
Ever since the American revolutionaries declared their independence from the tyranny of the King of England and set up their tripartite form of a representative republic under their Constitution, it has been adopted by some countries- in various forms- that seek to build a new type of government. The HOA form of government is no different. HOA is a decentralized form of government based on the vail of ignorance introduced by John Rawls. Benefits of system were discussed under “Participatory Democracy through Decentralization”. Benjamin Barber in his book “If Mayors Ruled the World” argued that “Cities are the motors of changes that can implement them as they are closer to their citizens than states are. In addition, they are not bothered by borders and sovereignty; therefore the world would run better by mayors”. Of course history tells us that this is not the case in every place. However, all of those failures were result of institutional corruptions at top. In modern days the old institutional corruptions were replaced by wealthy and powerful multinational corporations changing policies and even direction of a country. The African experiment with combination of federalism and decentralization was not successful for the same reason. Therefore, in order to have a just system, it is necessary to write a clear constitution with a specific role for each segment of government clearly delineated such that there is no need for interpretation and no institution can enslave the populous for their gain.
The purpose of this proposed constitution is to provide a basic foundation for any country that want to adopt this approach for their political system. Any future amendment to this constitution must result in limiting the power of government while promoting human rights and freedom of the citizens.
These are the core values that I suggest to any Nation that wants to adopt this system, which can use as their guiding principles and can’t be compromised to protect the popular sovereignty and democratic process.
Therefore, this constitution will be utilized by the first HOA in order to set guidelines for the government to run efficiently and effectively, a system that governs by rule of law where no oneis above law. This constitution can even apply to religious societies where the majority vote for Theocracy as their form of Government as long as the system runs within a participatory republic put forth in this framework.
The following outlines various important elements for the proposed governmental system to keep itself free from corruption, power of corporations and the tyranny of a central power. These constitutional elements are designed on the premise that the HOA is not an elected body, but would put such checks and balance in place so that if the HOA decides on any specific direction, it would be a controlled and educated one.
Above all, these constitutional elements are carefully planned so that, if adopted by a nation’s HOA, that nation will never again be hijacked by the level of corruption that currently exists in all forms of governments. It is also important to note that there is nothing in universe that is 100%. Therefore, I am not presenting this system as a panacea, but a first step in providing a system where people can determine their own destiny. A foundation that future generation can complete to live in peace sharing all resources.