This is an update of the previous Gubernatorial Sortitionist Constitution. It is also built on a non-sortitionist gubernatorial constitution that was done as an exercise for NSW. Main change in this version is that members of the citizenry body can resign to the Governor. (more)
Lebanon has a President that is elected by the Parliament. This is similar to one of the models proposed by Australian Republicans in 1999. Lebanon has a paralysed parliament and the Presidency's position has been vacant for two years now. The government recently nominated General Michel Suleiman, but this poses constitutional issues as he is not constitutionally eligible for the position. There will probably be more paralysis while the constitution is amended to allow a General to take the position. (more)
Leonard E. Levy writes, "They [America] resorted to arms in 1775, the Continental Congress believed, not to establish new liberties, but to defend old ones. In fact, they did establish many new liberties but convinced themselves that those liberties were old." (more)
I modified the Gubernatorial NSW Constitution by adding a Citizenry, or Citizen's Council component, whose members are chosen by lot. The same manner that juries are chosen. It is non-compulsory as sortitionists can resign (immediately if they choose).
(more)
The Iraqi government is contemplating using the Malaysian Constitution
as a template for its own. Malaysia is an Islamic state that has constitutional freedom of religion. Malaysia also has three large ethnic groups; Malay, Chinese and Indian. It appears that the Iraqis see similarities between Malaysia and the Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish issue.
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In the "Great Mistakes of Australian History" Clive Moore tackles the problem of federation and its choice in 1901. Moore argues that the constitutional process in the 19thC failed to engage with the Pacific and Asia, as well as made the constitution impervious to change. His final point is that political expediency and compromise between the colonies to get them to agree to federation has meant that the colonial boundaries are for ever cast in stone as states. (more)
I have broken the referendums down into the categories of centralisation, democracy, illiberalism and other in order to determine what the voters have been rejecting over the last century. It turns out that voters have been rejecting centralisation, overwhelmingly, with only three referendum being passed in the category, and twenty-four failing.
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A quick look at the federal referendums as told by graphs in percent states and electors for.
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Malcolm Turnbull in 1998;
Our Constitution read in isolation provides a most misleading and inadequate description of our system of government. Is it too much to ask that our most important law should be written in a manner that makes sense to people who are not lawyers and politicians?That is a strong statement which correctly identifies the biggest problem in Australian federal government and the strength of Australian Republicanism; its formal grounding in constitutional issues. (more)
This article introduces the Copernican paradigm. The Copernican Group advocates establishing an Australian republic by replacing the Queen with a popularly-elected Head of State.
The Copernican Gazette (PDF)
was published earlier in 2006 to convey the proposals of the group and they are looking for replies to publish.
(more)
