Chapter 6
Sketching in a Prototype Structure

It is only natural that those who have already given a great deal of thought and energy to the development of this proposal will have fashioned conceptual forms that they envision could embody the organization we hope to build, but we want to again declare that these are only intended to provide prototype ideas. We avidly hope that those who join us in developing this project will regard these ideas as merely a starting point, and will seek to build upon them, improve them, or replace them with better ideas.






Chapter 6a
Creating a Constitution

We, as conveners, have already put considerable effort into a preliminary attempt to fashion an actual prototype constitution for this proposed organization. The questions that constantly arise in the course of this extremely difficult task, however, have made us aware that it is not possible to fashion the most effective constitution, one that provides for the most effective checks and balances, free flow of communications, and constant accountability, without participation and input from a more diverse group of people.

A constitution lays out the most basic framework for an organization’s structure, rules and procedures. All rules and procedures have consequences, only some of which are intended. The unintended consequences of rules can often produce a far different result, or sometimes even the exact opposite result, than was imagined and intended by those who fashioned them.

Those who establish the rules and procedures of a democratic organization must make every effort to imagine how these rules could be used to subvert their own intent. We will hope that others will lend their mind-power to this task. In fact we hope that we can employ the energies of scholars who are disciplined experts in the study of democratic systems to provide their input into this crucially ‘mission critical’ task. But it is not only scholars that we need. We need the collective effort of people who bring diverse experience and expertise to this challenging endeavor.

We believe that the single most important objective of a democratic constitution must be to prevent the possibility of power becoming entrenched beyond full accountability. A constitution must provide checks and balances that guarantee that authority will always remains accountable to other agencies, and that all agencies will remain accountable to The People. We must try to imagine any and all ways that any rules and procedures that are established can be manipulated by citizens, and/or office holders, to facilitate the natural human inclination to desire power and control. A diverse group working diligently to challenge all proposed provisions of a prototype constitution, by imagining the possible unintended consequences of each provision, will have the best chance of producing the most democratic constitution.

Writing an effective democratic constitution is an excruciatingly difficult task. It is much easier to sketch an outline of the organization itself, together with how we imagine that it will function, than it is to codify the exact rules and procedures that will govern its functioning. In this paper, we will limit ourselves to undertaking this easier task.

In order to facilitate this, we will work from a prototype organizational chart, (on the following -page), that tries to schematically represent the structures that we imagine will comprise the organization, and the flow of authority, communication, and accountability between and among these structures. In our sketch, we hope to informally capture the essence of the general manners and procedures of the ongoing business in a group that is resolved to be truly democratic above all other considerations.

Again, we hope that all who read this will remember that this suggested structure is only intended to serve as a prototype, to be improved upon by better ideas.


Previous Page..........................................Table of Contents..........................................Next Page