Constitutional Discussion

Well, since it was suggested, here we are. This thread is for everyone to bring up their suggestions for needed Constiutional modifications.

Please keep in mind that these should be more aimed at "plugging the holes" and updating what we have; we are unlikely to do anything wacky like adding a fourth branch. (I mean, you could still submit it as a bill, but I doubt it would pass! )

I'll start off below in a reply, to keep things neat.

Currently, the Constitution makes no mention of term lengths, or even if there are term lengths. While it's arguable that the nature of a virtual community means these things should remain a matter of ordinary law, it is traditional to put these things at the "highest level".

Specifically: How long are the terms of the Dean and the Guildmaster? Given what I've raised in the past about how "workshops" don't really mean much in SL, how should the Guild go about electing a Guildmaster?

My own thoughts on the matter are: the current RA term length, while not "in law" per se, is about right. We should codify this officially, with the other two branches having a longer term length. (... and while this isn't necessarily a constitutional matter, as a practical one elections should be staggered in such a way that we never have two branches change at the same time, to promote continuity of government.)

The Guild could either, like the SC, have a simple majority of masters decide, or perhaps some weighted vote scheme to include journeymen as well. (frex, masters get 2 votes, journeymen get one.) I'm not particularly suggesting either of these, I'm brainstorming.

Since my first comments are on Article VI, I'll work backwards. Keep in mind that what you have here is one citizens half baked opinion

Article VI

VI.1 Citizens must be referred by two members of the group.....

I don't think this happens in practice. Since we want Neualtenburg to grow (or thats the impression I get) perhaps this sentence should be removed.

The rest of the article is messy. It requests one week notice before leaving and grants a one week grace period--after what? I'm guessing after missing a land fee payment, but I'm not sure. Section 3 says that citizens shall not make departure ultimatums, or? I can see the prohibition on government issued ones, but isn't the ban on citizen ultiumatums a matter of regular law, particularly since without an enforcement mechanism or penalty, it's essentially meaningless.

My sense is that citizenship is available to anyone who agrees to uphold the constitution and pay their fees. Perhaps this article should address land abandonment, ie. citizenship will be revoked when any person is more than 7 calendar days late in a land fee payment if he/she has not made arrangements with the treasurer or his/her designee.

Article V

Term lengths should be in here. The RA shouldn't be allowed to set the lenth of their own service, for example. Somewhere in the constitution also needs to be a mechanism for filling any vacancies other than end of a term of office (do we have a special election or is the seat filled by appointment if someone up and leaves suddenly) OK I see that RA vacancies are covered in Article IV and the other branches don't have a fixed minimum membership.

Article IV

I personally would like to see campaigning permitted in the forums. I know this is a touchy subject. I tend to be in world when most others aren't and vice versa. In such a situation , the unscripted objects only rule means I get slogans rather than substantive discussion of faction philosophies and stands on issues. Opening up campaign threads in the forum would allow those who want to discuss politics to discuss and those who don't to ignore politics in a way you can't when an avatar walks up in world.

Iv.2 requires factions to beable to fill 1/2 the seats in the RA. What happens when there's an odd number of seats in the RA? (generally a good idea) Do you need 1/2 +1?

Articles I - III

The constitution uses Philosophic branch and SC interchangeably. Also, what is the difference between Chairs and Progessors in the SC? this is unclear.

These articles specify who sits as the head of what branch when branch x seeks to impeach a member of branch y. If that's in the constitution, the whole impeachment procedure needs to be too.

Actually, some of the latest things passed have not yet been updated on the website; I believe that passage has been removed, as has the one-week notice - that was an artifact of Neualtenburg's main-grid days, when everyone had to join the Neualtenburg group.

I know Cid has some archives. Do these have any official status? I think it would help the process greatly if the neualtenburg.org website had not only the foundational documents, but also transcripts of all the public meetings (RA, Gilde). Most of thses seem to already exist in the forums, so it would just be a matter of moving them over.

Before we can have a constitutional convention, someone has to go through and update the documents (constitution, other laws passed) to reflect the changes which have already been made (for example, reducing the minimum RA size to 5). We have to start whaever process from an accurate baseline. It would make the most sense if someone who has spent significant time on the RA tackled this. Any brave souls out there?

From a recruitment and promotional perspective it might be helpful to have in-world all candidates meetings such as debates and moderated panels during the runup to an election. Citizens like Aliasi and Gwyn who currently run civics classes could switch to running all candidates meetings during that time period, and hand out the civics class material in notecard form.

While that would certainly be a good idea, I am not currently running civics classes, and It might be a bit inappropriate to have me hold a debate when I am now on the RA.

Several of the things that Claude brought up were also questions that came to my mind while reading through the Constitution this morning -- especially the bits on having two current citizens refer you; on term lengths; and on the difference between Professors and Chairs.

II.2 - membership in the Artisanal Collective comes in four tiers; what's the difference between the four? How is someone assigned to a tier, if membership is open to "all participant citizens provided they create goods and services for the city" (II.2)?

II.3 - what's an artist's workshop? The size of their biggest plot? The combined size of all their plots?

II.5 - "All goods produced by members of the AC remain property of the citizens and must remain with them if a member departs." -- how is this to be ensured? What happens if a member of the AC leaves and takes some or all of their goods with them? Does this apply to all goods a member produces or only those produced in some official capacity (e.g. on commission -- whether paid or unpaid -- for the City)?

I'm also not quite sure what the point of the AC is -- or, rather, what the benefit is for someone to join the AC.

III.1 vs III.2 - how can someone join the Scientific Council? III.1 ("self-selected meritocracy" sounds to me as if anyone can say that they "deserve" to be in there, while III.2 ("chosen at the recommendation of current members" sounds as if they have to be explicitly invited.

IV.2 - "The faction vote will be taken at the same time citizens vote for factions" -- I'm not sure what this is supposed to be; it looks like a tautology to me, on the order of "Elections take place when elections are held".

I suppose "faction vote" refers to the bit where "members rank individuals in their own faction by means of the Borda count", while "citizens vote for factions" refers to where, well, the general populace votes for factions.

Also, I'm not sure whether the constitution explicitly says that citizens vote for factions, rather than people, though this seems to be assumed. So I can't know whether a given individual gets into the government, since who is leader depends on a faction-interal vote whose outcome is not known in advance.

IV.4 - "Campaigning for factions can be done in-world only by means of unscripted items that are placed in a predetermined central location or by discourse between two avatars directly." What happens if one faction or another violates this guide-line? At any rate, it seemed to me when I had a look at Neualtenburg on Monday, I saw several campaign posters for various factions on various places throughout the sim (not just in a "central location", predetermined or not), and the items outside the Rathaus offered to give me notecards when I touched them (which requires scripting, doesn't it?).

I'm not sure whether either point violates the spirit of the guidelines, but I was a little surprised to read IV.4 after having seen the campaign posters -- nor am I sure what good a completely unscripted item can be; I suppose all it can do is display a texture with the party's main platform points or something.

VI.3 - "Citizens are may not [sic] issue departure ultimatums to members of the government." -- What does this mean? They may not say "Do X by date Y or *I* will leave", or they may not say "*You* will have to leave by date Y unless you do X"? What's the point of this rule? How is it enforced?

I'm not sure what this part of V.2 means: "Members of the Representative Assembly and the Scientific Council may be members of the Artisanal Collective but may not vote nor hold elected positions in the Artisanal branch."

What elected positions are there in the Artisanal branch? None? Guild master? Something else?

The Guild Master is elected by the masters of the guild. However, those serving on the RA or SC don't vote. The principle is that a person should have a vote in only one branch of city government at any given time.

The other things you mentioned are cases where practice has superceded the original document and the constitution needs to be updated. It's a hight priority for this RA.

I've visited the City, read the constitution, asked a few questions, read the forums and read Frank Larber's interesting sociological/law review, here are few opinions regarding changes to the constitution and the Projekt:

-The Sim needs traffic and reliable commercial income
-People need to get paid for their work
-We need to simplify some of the governance (KISS principle) and make it recognizable to the average RL modern citizen.
-The legal/political framework gives the infrastructure for types of commerce (contracts, law enforcement) that are unenforcable elsewhere.

1)Eligibility for Citizenship (Article VI): Currently is recommendation by 2 citizens. I believe this should require either owning land or renting from a citizen who owns land. Only citizens may own land. Citizens should be given a non-modifiable passport object (with their name on it and a citizenship number) by the civil service (more in a moment). I also think a monthly or quarterly head tax needs to be levied on each citizen. This combined with an landlord optional rentor's security deposit (for rentors not paying tier), provides funds for the civil service and penalizes citizens for leaving on a whim. Sections 2 & 3 are difficult to enforce and need to be interpreted on a case by case basis by the SC, perhaps also rethought. You can rent land without being a citizen, but you cannot own land. You can join the Guild as a non-citizen, but you cannot vote (journeyman or apprentice only).

2)The Artisanant Collective (AC) Article III: Should probably simply be renamed to "The Guild" to avoid confusion between the 2 labels. The guild should probably function within its own set of rules. I like the idea of the 4 levels, but the consitution should only refer to the Guildmaster and the Masters because only they have votes. My opinion is that membership should be approached as invitation by a master accepting apprentices or by a vote of masters on accepting accomplished artisans as masters or journeymen. Votes based on the size of the workshop needs to be made very clear. I don't think it's workable. It should be one master, one vote. How do you represent workshop size, in meters squared? What about fractions of a vote? You could round up vote fractions but then the biggest tier guild member, not the most accomplished gets influence. I would do away with the unworkable "size of workshop".

The Guild should not function as the city treasury. The role of the city "bank" has never been clear to me. Funds should be held by the RA. N'Burg RA should give right of first refusal to contracts given to the Guild. Items made by the Guild for the city should be displayed by the Guildmaster for approval by the city engineer, paid for by the city engineer upon acceptance with treasury funds. Items created for private citizens or non-citizens under contract to the Guild are presented by the Guildmaster. As such, the Guildmaster has copyable, modifable objects of all Guild contracted/commissioned items and passes them on to his successor. Perhaps an official guild store/general store can be run by the Master as well. (Forgive me if this is the "general store" concept already in place).

Note that this doesn't stop groups of guild members from making their own items and sharing/not sharing/selling/not selling them as private artisans. Working out those regulations is up to guild. Same with collusion/price fixing etc. City infrastrucure made by the guild should be non-modifyable and non-copyable unless otherwise specified in the contract. This requires a change in the convenant. Guild splits proceeds from the sales of city infrastructure as it sees fits. Guild levies membership dues as it sees fit. All merchants (goods & services) renting or owning commercial space in N'Burg should belong to the Guild.

3)Philosophical Branch (Article III). This really confused me at first. I think the idea of a self-appointed meritocracy is unworkable. This is more of a Supreme Court. Maybe the RA leader (RAL) should nominate a member of the 5 member SC for vote by the citizenry.
This should be a legal body only. The remaining experts should work at the university and serve in an advisory role to gov't, perhaps testifying in cases as expert witnesses and teach courses. The university can charge tuition on courses etc. Members of the court do work and should be paid.

Article IV - Factions: First of all, rename this to "Parties" so this sounds less like an unstable banana republic. Ok, a 2 vote process is interesting, so you vote for party first and candidate second. I don't know of any other country doing this, why not just a single vote to keep the process simple? If you like the party but hate the candidates, you should run yourself and vote for yourself, or vote another way. Let's call the RA leader (RAL), the "Burgher" or mayor, with N'Burg city keys worn around the neck of the Burgher's avatar. The burgher should be the main political reprentative of the Projeckt to Linden Labs and to outside Sims. Members of the RA do work, and should be paid.

-I thought I saw something in the constitution about closed door/unreported sessions. Have these ever been used? For the sake of transparency, I think they should be done away with.

-All voting offices should have fixed terms (except maybe the SC), expressed in writing in the constitution. Sucession policies and procedures also need to be there.
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Ok, so now everyone who works in a defined job as a non-volunteer gets paid. We know what citizens are and we tolerate guest workers. We'd have a workable mechanism for renting land. Non-citizens pay no head tax, have none of the citizenship rights but must obey the laws all the same. Guild members control who joins the merchant class and run their own affairs without controlling the purse strings of the city. Guild members taking their marbles and leaving is no longer a threat.

The party in power in the RA can hire civil servants, such as the engineer, who approves and installs infrastructure from vendors, and makes sure builds are to code/covenant. A treasurer who controls tax collection, city payroll and vendor payments. Auditors/police to patrol vs. griefers and enforce the law by finding/investigating transgressions and reporting them to the SC. These are either RA members, who already get a salary for being RAs, or outside (at will) workers. The burgher can hire/fire/reassign/create positions at will. Guild can veto the budget, which is a financial bill containing these line items. As always, city spending must be publicly reported/available. I would like to see political debates, and possibly VOIP (voice) using teamspeak or Skype to get more across. (Typing can be slow).

So If I buy or rent space in the marketplatz, I'm also a guild member, will have preferential access (perhaps) to their prims/scripts. In exchange, I pay my head tax to the RA (if a citizen) and my guild dues, and my land fees or rent. So I have to make money to cover this overhead, or I won't be around long, just like real life. I suppose merchant finances can remain private. It would be complicated to do monthly reporting to the city for income tax purposes, and pretty much unenforceable. I think the rent/land is competitive here for commercial activity and the goveranance gives this Sim the best chance (via Nota Bene etc.) more chance to enforce contracts and innovate in service offerings.

-The only legal penalties I can think of are:
a)Fines
b)Forfeiture of land through non-payment of rent
c)Revocation of Citizenship though violations or failure to pay head tax.

The big difficulty is giving a,b,c any real teeth so they can be enforced. We need to get creative to solve that problem.

-Any comments? I'd like to discuss these further....

Pelanor, Thanks for visiting. You've got a lot here. Bear with me as I address things bit by bit.



I think these two ideas are generally agreed upon. See Sudane's post on "economic foundation"


Gwyneth Llewelyn has posted about the uniqueness of our governmental structures. While there is some move toward simplification, the governmental structures were never intended to be a mirror of RL.



This is being worked on. See Gwyneth's recent post on citizenship requirements.



At the moment, the Guildmaster is the only guild member with an official government role. Other things, possibly including how he/she is elected, may devolve to a matter of Guild internal procedures. The size of workshop provision is another piece of constitutional dead wood.



The fact that the Guildmaster and the Treasurer are the same person is a matter of current cirumstance rather than design. She was treasurer before becoming Guildmaster. The store/sandbos is under construction.

...



I think it's fair to say that the SC is not of one mind at the moment as to whether it's a judiciary branch or the upper hous of a bicameral legislature. See the Proposed Constitutional Amendment to Article III, Section 6.



Two things here. First I think you slightly misunderstand the electoral system. All citizens rank factions. You only rank people if you're a member of a faction, and only rank persons (including yourself) in the faction of which you're a member. It is very much like straight proportional representation systems except that, rather than faction/party lists being decided ahead of time, they are generated in the course of voting. As to your other suggestion, Neualtenburg is not 100% Medieval Bavarian, calling the LRA (Leader of the Representative Assembly) Burgher would probably confuse just as many people.



Not to my knowledge. However, if there are at some point "city employees", it may be desirable to discuss personnel matters in closed session, a fairly common practice in some places.



These are interesting thoughts. One of the points made in the citizenship thread is that there are no meaninful penalties other than land seizure/expulsion (at the moment, all citizens are landowners and vice versa). If you have citizens who do not own land, there is essentially no enforcement mechanism with which to threaten them should they transgress.

I hoped that this has helped to clarify things. Please keep in mind that Neualtenburg's governmental structures are still a work in progress.

Thanks for clearing some of this up Claude.



Somehow I thought that both the Guildmaster *and* the master each get a vote. Ok, thanks for clearing that up.



Ok, I'm not sure if the Guildmaster right now is also a member of the RA. That should not happen under the exclusivity clause. I'm not a big fan of the treasurer being a member of the AC, (too much conflict of interest). There has to be a little more about electing a Guildmaster etc. with terms. You don't want a dictatorial Guildmaster for life. The GM has plenty of power. A really bad GM can bring down the Sim. (veto everything, reneg on contracts, not build, ruin the business environment).



I'll weigh in here and say I don't like the idea of self-appointed experts ratifying laws.
I'm not sure we need an upper house with 27 citizens. Most cities don't.



Ok this helps. How about "Mayor"? A newbie doesn't know from LRA or RA. I see the idea of voting for platform a good way to avoid populism and cults of personality. Personally I don't want to vote for a party and not know who will be the LRA as a result of my vote. I understand that these structures are not meant to parallel RL, but they require much more study/assimilation for newcomers in order to make sense if they are totally alien. One advantage is that I'm incentivized to join a faction if I want any real say in who becomes RLA.


Agreed, that's not public city business per se. That's just typical mgr/employee stuff.



Eating my head tax and rentor's security deposit would make me think twice about getting banished. If you can somehow blacklist expelled avatars and script them from never coming back in, it would help. All employees in the city should have a valid passport or guest worker visa that can work with scripts for certain city rights/obligations (such as collecting taxes or whatever). If a banished ex-citizen can be kept out via physics scripting, maybe other lesser punishments attached to passports/visas could work with Sim scripts.

NA is an excellent work in progress. As far as I'm concerned, it's the best thing out there. I sure hope it can be made to grow and thrive. I personally would love to join the guild and set up a bank here.