The primary mandate of the Second Aytos Provisional Parliament is to pass a permanent constitution for Aytos. I have been working on this draft for quite some time, and now I believe it is complete, as long as that the people of Aytos approve of the type of government it institutes for us.

To determine the level of support, I began by asking people within the ORPA party for their suggestions and criticisms. There may be some details to be settled, but as a whole this proposed constitution is supported within the ORPA party. This means it would certainly receive ORPA's three votes (out of four needed for passage) if the Parliament held a vote on it today.

But passing a constitution quickly isn't the best thing for Aytos; the best thing is to get many eyeballs on this, to see if we can make a good constitution even better. So I am presenting this draft to the entire Aytos public, asking you to read and understand it, and then to submit your suggestions on what you think might be improved. I will pay particular attention to what MP's beanbagtraveler and pavel_the_hitman have to say about it, because they represent the non-ORPA 40% of the Aytian public and also because we need one of their votes for passage (and we would prefer both of their votes).

You can all comment here in the thread, or if it helps explain something you have to say you can also comment on the google document itself.

My summary of the contents:

The Preamble explains that we the Aytian people are voluntarily creating a government and giving it powers, so that it can in return guard our rights (for example, by keeping us safe from griefers and criminals). This is the Lockean theory of republican government.

Article I lists the rights that the government is there to protect. If there are any natural rights that should also be included, please suggest them so that they can be added.

Article II establishes the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is designed to be a watchdog over the entire government, ensuring that it obeys the law. It consists of lifetime-appointed judges, so that party politics will never interefere with our justice system or with investigations of government corruption.

Articles III and IV implement the Parliament and Ministers form of government that we are currently using. The rules for election of parliament may seem complex. To help everyone understand how it works, the proposed parliament is a slight variation of the "Mixed Member PR" system described in this CGP Gray video. The Aytos variation is that we drop one "balancing seat" to make sure our Parliament is always an odd number (to avoid ties in voting). The video mentions districts; In Aytos, the districts are the different towns, so for example Aytos City is a single district, but Mine-Koping or other villages will be considered as districts if and when they join as States of Aytos.

...Which brings us to Article V. Any outside political entity can join Aytos as a "Federated State", if our Parliament approves the state's charter and constitution and sees it as a benefit to Aytos to let them in. It's expected that Mine-Koping will join as the second State of the Republic (Aytos City is considered the first state).

Federal government means a system where power is shared between the national ("Federal") government and the local governments of each State. The details of which government is in charge of what are left up to the charter that the parliament approves for each State, but generally speaking the Federal Government will be in charge of security for the nation and local governments will manage almost everything else.

There is a section in article V that includes the charter for the City of Aytos, describing our local, "State-level" government. The City of Aytos is an exception to most States because our local government will mainly be just the national Prime Minister and other Ministers. However we as a city will be able to pass local-only laws from a special mini-Parliament that includes all the Parliament members not elected from other States (the "Aytos City Council"). The City Council will pass codes dealing with city plots and other local matters, while the full Federal Parliament will pass laws that deal with defense and things that concern all the Aytian States.

Hopefully that makes it more clear for all of you. I look forward to your input and suggestions.