ARTICLE TWO:   

TERRITORY, EMBLEMS AND CAPITAL 

Section One:

Territory of the Commonwealth:

The Commonwealth shall consist of the continental island of Bergonia and all the smaller islands which lie on its continental shelf, including the islands of Calpia.

Section Two:

The Flag

Commonwealth authorities shall display a flag which shall consist of a (navy) blue field in a ration of 5:3 or longer.   A canton in a ration of 3:2 shall consist of a tricolor of (navy) blue, gold and red.    In the (navy) blue field may appear eight gold stars of four points arranged in a diamond-shaped constellation. 

Different organs and agencies of the commonwealth may fly flags bearing such emblems in the (navy) blue field that Congress authorizes them to use, instead of the eight stars.

Note:   The constitution specifically states that the stars must have four points.   The Bergonians have always associated the five pointed star with Europe and America, and the four pointed star with native traditions.  Indeed the Pre-Columbian Bergonians employed the four pointed star in art and graphics.  During the Revolution, the Communists used eight five pointed stars on all their flags and, soon enough, most of those who participated in the Radical Regime used the five pointed stars.  The Mistralistas, who fought bitterly against  the Radical Regime, dominated the Constitutional Convention of 1934 and had no trouble inserting this requirement.  

The blue used on the flag has been further regulated-- the exact hue is C-100, M-100, Y-30, K-10.

Section Three:

The Seal

Congress shall designate a seal for display and for authentication of documents.  Such seal shall consist of a preba-cat reclining on a rock, with a spread of flowering laurel in the foreground and the outline of Gablaru in the background, and the sun in the sky.

A second seal for informal use shall consist of  a diamond arrangement of four-pointed stars, gold in color and eight in number, situated on a disk of blue, placed on a lozenge of red.  

Note:  The motto on the seal is Minidun, meaning "In this land we live as one," from the Declaration of Independence from British rule written by Michel Peislei and proclaimed on 30 April 1780.

Section Four:

The Capital

          The Congress, President, Officers and ministers of the Commonwealth shall conduct their affairs in the cities of Ceiolai or Lefitoni, according to such laws as Congress enacts. 

ARTICLE THREE:   

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

Section One:

Constitutional and Legal Authority

(a)  This constitution shall serve as the blueprint for the organization of the Commonwealth and the source of all law.  The commonwealth shall comprise a society of equitable laws under this constitution, and all social, political and economic authority within its boundaries shall transpire only by virtue of its provisions and the laws enacted pursuant hereto, and no authority shall exist otherwise. 

(b)  It is the privilege and duty of the courts and of all other authority to annul any act that in substance violates any provision of this constitution.  Notwithstanding any law or regulation to the contrary, a full citizen may resist and refuse any authority that flagrantly violates the provisions of this article.

Notes: 

This section establishes constitutional supremacy.  The courts cite this section when striking down onerous laws passed by authoritarian legislative bodies and executives.   

This section, hence this entire article, very much unlike any constitution in a capitalist country, applies to the nation's economic enterprises just as much as it applies to the government.  The courts have evoked this section to annul the actions of corporate & cooperative leadership as often as it has annulled the actions of government.  This language, in a sense that an American lawyer would understand, is the "due process" clause for the entire economy and society.  

Subsection (b) contains the "annulment clause," that gives the courts the power to annul unconstitutional acts, and the ever-controversial "right of revolt."

Section Two:

Liberty

(a)  State and society shall guarantee the fundamental liberty of citizens to think, speak, publish,  demonstrate, travel, and work as they choose, live in peace and privacy in their homes with their families, and associate with others of their own choosing.

(b)  State and society shall guarantee the fundamental liberty of citizens to associate with others of their own choosing, so that any group of individuals may combine in free association under the protection of this constitution, pursuant to its provisions, as they choose, and any groups so formed may freely federate and associate with each other.

Section Three:

Democracy

          The commonwealth shall always strive to follow democratic socialist principles, so that citizens and workers can establish and limit all authority, including authority over labor and resources, and live free of the folly and pain of both private capitalist ownership and dictatorial government control. Therefore: 

(a)  All authority exercised pursuant to this constitution shall be either directly democratic or under the supervision of elected representatives,

Note:  This section incorporates what is now commonly called the "democracy guarantee," relating to Principle 3 of the Eight Principles. 

(c)  No authority shall impose sanctions without adjudicated or mediated proceedings, with proper advance notice, where every affected person may speak and defend himself, and no person shall be imprisoned or placed into state custody.  

Section Four:

Socialism

State and society shall guarantee the right of citizens and workers to organize cooperatives, collectives, private associations and partnerships for economic endeavors, and neither state nor society shall sanction or allow capitalist ownership of resources or employment of labor.

ARTICLE FOUR:  

FEDERALISM

Section One:

Federalism

The commonwealth is a federation of states, counties, autonomous counties and communes, in which all authority shall be devolved to the extent practicable.  Every citizen must remain vigilant against the unnecessary concentration of power.  The courts are empowered and bound to void any laws of the commonwealth or the states that improperly exercise authority belonging to a subdivision.

Note:   The federalism of most republics is between the national government and the various states.  Sovereignty is shared between these two levels, and either the national government or the states .  Bergonian sovereignty resides with the people themselves, so federalism is explicitly nothing more than a democratic device to advance the will of the people, and therefore the partners in Bergonian federalism include the local organs of government as well as the national, state, and local  levels-- three levels of federalism.

Section Two:

States and Subdivisions

(a)  Except for national wilderlands, the territory of the commonwealth shall be divided into various states [called lesre in Minidun], which shall in turn be divided into various subdivisions.

(b)  The state subdivisions shall include counties (bunec), autonomous counties (zhubon), and cities (tunec). 

(c)  Each subdivision shall consist of local communes, including villages, towns and city neighborhoods.  Each commune shall have the right to govern themselves by either establishing assemblies and councils or through direct democracy.  The states and subdivisions shall promote and enable communal self-government, and no law shall be passed that unreasonably restricts communal self-government.

Notes:  Bergonia is a land of many ethnic groups.  The founders of the Fourth Commonwealth tore a page out of the Stalinist Constitution for the Soviet Union (1932), which created autonomous republics and oblasts.  This Stalinist creation was just window dressing for a vicious dictatorship, but even so it formed the basis for all the post-Soviet states.  The Bergonians put the model to a more serious test.  Small areas exist, particularly near the coasts, where the descendants of European settlers live.  Wherever there are concentrations of a minority ethnic group living on the midst of a larger group, a zhubon may be created.

The zhubon (autonomous counties) control education and communications, including radio and television, the primary repositories of modern culture.  The zhubon also have control over the police.  But they lack control over the land, this power remaining with the States per Art. 13, Sect. 2.  This reservation stirs as much controversy as any other section of the constitution.

Frankly, a lot of people regard the zhubon as a failed experiment, and liken it to a distinction without a difference.

Section Three:

Constitutions of States and Subdivisions

Each state and every subdivision shall establish for itself a constitution or charter which the voters must approve and may amend by referendum.  Each such constitution or charter shall establish  either (i) an elected congress or assembly with authority to approve all budgets, taxes, charges and fees, and remove all officials, or (ii) a method for direct democracy by the citizens of the subdivision with an elected and recallable executive council.  Each such constitution and charter shall conform to the various requirements stated elsewhere in this constitution.  Otherwise the various states and subdivisions may create such structures and systems of government as the peoples therein wish.  

Note:  All 50 states in the United States have an identical system of government, a miniature version of the federal government.  Likewise, in most other Western democracies the federal government more or less prescribes the form of state or provincial government.  There is a woefully similar lack of variety in local governments.  In the United States it is only among municipal government that any variety is permitted.

As this section allows, states and local government in Bergonia assumes many different forms. 

Section Four:

Boundaries of States and Subdivisions

All boundaries shall be drawn to protect the social and cultural interests of all the various nationalities and races of the commonwealth.  

Congress may change the borders of the various states and autonomous counties therein, but no change shall occur without a plebiscite of the affected populations.   The congresses of the various states shall set the boundaries of the counties and cities, but no changes shall occur without a plebiscite of the affected populations.  Both Congress and the congresses of the various states shall enact laws allowing for plebiscites on border changes upon the receipt of petitions signed by one eighth of the voters of a defined region. 

Section Five:

War and Foreign Affairs

The Congress alone has the right to declare or authorize war and make peace, as well as to conclude alliances and treaties with foreign states.  Otherwise the president shall conduct the foreign affairs of the commonwealth.

Section Six:

Armed Force, Police and Weapons

(a)  The commonwealth shall maintain a standing armed force, to consist of land, sea and air forces, and  intelligence and espionage capacities.  Without the consent of Congress, no state or subdivision may maintain standing armed forces, including militias.

(b)  However, each subdivision shall establish a police force to enforce the laws created by the commonwealth, the states or the subdivisions pursuant to this constitution.  States may also establish police forces to assist the subdivision police and augment their work, but the states may not take control of the subdivision police.  Every state shall establish citizens councils to audit and investigate the work of the various police forces.

(c)  Congress may establish a national police force, but only to (i) enforce the commercial laws and the laws against misuse and corruption of public offices that Congress and the various States may enact, (ii) police the ports, coasts, seas and commonwealth borders, the wilderness zones and other areas under direct control of commonwealth officers and (iii) enforce the environmental laws passed either by Congress or the various states, including laws concerning energy production and use, environmental protection and pollution, and (iv) laws limiting the possession, transportation and treatment of animals and products made from animals, and the mistreatment of animals.

            (d)  Full citizens shall have the right to own and use weapons for hunting, sport and self-protection, and they may associate to form gun clubs.  To protect public safety and environmental health, states and subdivisions may enact laws that reasonably limit possession and use of weapons in public places, regulate hunting and sport shooting , license the distribution and sale of weapons, limit the activities of gun clubs, and allocate available land for their use.  Congress may enact laws that license the manufacture of weapons and the national distribution of weapons, and that prohibit or limit possession, use and availability of automatic, military, explosive or surreptitious weapons and weapons of random or mass effect.

Note:  (d) was also tweaked in 1988, so as to drop a provision about militias, give local govs the power to restrict the sometimes very obnoxious gun clubs, and add the provision giving Congress its limited powers to regulate firearms.  The addition of "surreptitious weapons" and "weapons of random or mass effect" was intended to include all "weapons of terror."   Fortunately the incidence of terror in Bergonia has been minor and few.

The provision "...and allocate available land for their use..." was added by national referendum in 1952.  The best way to get the gun clubs ( the former militias ) out of public places was to give them locations for shooting ranges, marching grounds and other toy soldier games.  several million people belong to these clubs, and they remain popular because of their civic programs, sponsorship of teams, and colorful addition to local parades. 

Ironically, while the gun enthusiasts in the US typically adopt far right, hyper-individualist politics, the Bergonian gun club enthusiasts tend to be far-left individualist anarchists, or members of the newly emerging "hyper-left" tendency in the NDP, as well as whatever repressed Kilitan tendencies remain in Bergonian society..

Section Seven:

Criminal Justice

The states shall have primary authority to define criminal offenses and their punishments, by which individuals may be restrained in their liberty.  Local governments may not enact laws imposing punishments of imprisonment without leave of state law.  

Congress may define (i) crimes of treason, (ii) crimes against national or military security, (iii) crimes concerning the integrity of the borders, coasts, open waters and wilderness zones and all other places under commonwealth administration, (iv) crimes involving the misuse of commonwealth funds or the funds or resources of any income or pension fund, health care system or bank, (v) crimes relating to the taxes imposed by Congress pursuant to Article 13, (vi) crimes concerning energy production and use, environmental protection and pollution, and (vii) laws limiting the possession, transportation and treatment of animals and products made from animals, and the mistreatment of animals.

Note:  (vi) and (vii) in the second paragraph was added by the 1988 Convention, and approved in the 1990 referendum.  This legitimized the controversial Environmental Enforcement Agency, the federal police agency created in 1985 by the Harmony-dominated government.

For the punishment of crimes and the rehabilitation of offenders, each state shall establish a system of prisons, jails and detention centers, work camps and work houses, and systems for house arrest, work release and probation.  Such systems shall receive defendants found guilty of violating any criminal offense defined by either by Congress or by the individual states. 

No person in police or prison custody shall be subject to beatings or torture, forced to answer questions or give statements against their will, exposed to unhealthy conditions of confinement, or prevented from communicating with family or attorneys.

Section Eight:

Land Use

            (a)  The counties, autonomous counties and cities shall control land and allocate land for various uses by individuals and corporations, appropriate to priorities of environmental protection, need, use and availability, subject to approval of the affected communes.

(b)  The counties, autonomous counties and cities shall regulate all use of land and buildings by publication and enforcement of a land use code and plan, subject to principles established by the state congresses.

Section Nine:

Public Works

(a)  The states and their subdivisions may construct roads, canals, public utilities and other public works at their own expense or encourage such works by granting subsidies.

(b)  For this purpose, the states and subdivisions may, against full compensation, expropriate leaseholds of land.

Section Ten:

Energy

The commonwealth shall establish and administer a system of electrical energy generation and transmission.  The commonwealth shall also supervise and regulate the pipelines for the transport of liquid or gaseous fuels.

The commonwealth shall establish a national energy policy under which it shall supervise the importation of oil and other needed energy, the extraction of oil, coal and natural gas from the territory of the commonwealth, and the management of atomic power, all in a manner consistent with environmental protection and reclamation.

Note:   The second paragraph was added by the 1988 Convention, and approved in the 1990 referendum.

Section Eleven:

Environmental and Animal Protection

a) The states shall have the primary authority to protect nature and landscapes.  The states shall acquire or conserve nature reserves, historical sites and monuments of national importance on a contractual basis or by means of expropriation.  The state shall provide each subdivision with the authority and means to establish protected nature reserves and parks, and each county and autonomous county shall set aside at least ten percent of its land as wilderness, fallow or park land.

b)  The commonwealth shall have the primary power to protect animal and plant species and their habitats, so that no specie becomes extinct.  The commonwealth shall establish and police the National Wilderness Zones, wherein no person may reside or conduct permanent economic activity except as completely compatible with the preservation  of wilderness.  Such zones shall not be part of any State and shall be under the direct authority of the commonwealth. Congress may adjust and contact boundaries of states in order to establish or expand such zones, but only after consulting with the legislative bodies of the affected states and counties.

c)  The commonwealth shall legislate for the protection of human health and the natural environment against air and water pollutants, toxic and all other carbon, chemical, mineral and industrial waste, emissions and effluents.

d)  The states shall have the power to legislate for the protection of animals, including prohibitions against animal neglect and abuse, and live experimentation on animals, and regulation of the use of animals, the slaughter at abattoirs and other methods of killing animals, and the sale, trade or transfer of animals and animal products.  Congress shall have the power to prohibit and limit the importation and exportation of animals and animal products, or use of any electronic media or communication in aid of any commerce in animals or animal products or in aid of violations of commonwealth or state laws enacted under this subsection.

Note:   This section was completely rewritten by the 1988 Convention, and approved in the 1990 referendum.  Before this section was titled "Conservation and Land Management" and contained provisions appropriate to the 1930s. 

Section Twelve:

Education, Science and the Arts

a)  The commonwealth shall supervise the academies of the nation, with one academy for each field of science, arts and letters.  Each academy shall enjoy scientific and academic autonomy, and shall coordinate scientific research within its particular branch.  The commonwealth shall have primary responsibility for funding and enabling scientific and technical research.

b)  Each state and each autonomous county shall establish at least one university, and may establish other institutions for higher education or subsidize such institutions.

c)  The subdivisions shall provide for adequate primary education, providing for twelve years of schooling. Such education shall be compulsory and, in public schools, free of charge.

            d)  Primary responsibility for the establishment of museums, theaters, orchestras, gymnasiums and sport facilities shall belong to the subdivisions.

e)  Any provision of law or regulation and any administrative act which impedes scientific objectivity or which denies or grants remuneration or promotions within educational and research institutions based upon any consideration besides scientific merit may be declared invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction.

Section Thirteen:

Regulation of Trade and Industry

a)  No authority shall place tariffs, tolls or fees upon the transportation or trading of goods or services within the borders of the commonwealth. 

b)  The commonwealth shall have exclusive power to regulate trade with foreign states and with individuals or entities located outside the commonwealth. The commonwealth shall have exclusive authority to maintain and police the borders of the commonwealth, and provide for a customs service for all entry into the commonwealth. The commonwealth shall have the exclusive authority to levy import and export duties.

c)  The commonwealth shall have exclusive power to establish and regulate weights, measures, and industry standards.

d)  The commonwealth shall have the exclusive power to set or limit prices and minimum wages.

e)   The states shall have the exclusive authority to regulate the professions, trades and crafts.

Section Fourteen:

Transportation

The commonwealth shall have primary responsibility to regulate transport in the air, on the waterways, over the seas, and by rail, and for the development of a national plan of transportation in cooperation with the states.

The states shall have primary authority to plan, build and maintain thoroughfares and autoroutes.  The subdivisions shall have authority to maintain common roads and streets, and to regulate motor traffic.

Section Fifteen:

Communication

            The commonwealth shall have the authority to allocate bandwidth and establish standards for communication technologies.

Within the bounds of such plans established by the commonwealth for bandwidth allocation, the states shall have the primary authority to license television and radio stations, except that each state shall assign this authority to any autonomous counties within its boundaries.

Section Sixteen:

General Welfare and Economic Security

a)  Both the commonwealth and the states shall have concurrent authority to promote the general welfare and the economic security of the citizens and communities, consistent with the limitations imposed by this constitution.

b)  The commonwealth, the states and the subdivisions shall act to:

(i)  maintain a prosperous rural population and ensure agricultural productivity.

(ii)  direct new enterprises and investment to subdivisions and communes with relatively poor economies,

(iii)  prevent economically or socially harmful effects of federated cooperatives, cartels, syndicates and similar groupings;

(iv)  take precautionary measures for the economic protection of their populations, and also measures to ensure that the people are supplied with vital goods and services in the event of severe shortages which the economy itself cannot remedy.

Section Seventeen:

Currency and Banking

a)  The commonwealth shall have the exclusive authority to establish and mint currency for use by all citizens in the commonwealth, and it shall maintain a central bank to assure currency stability and currency reserve.  The commonwealth shall also have exclusive authority to regulate convertibility of the currency with the currencies of other nations, procedures for currency transactions, banking, lending and negotiable instruments.

b)  The states and subdivisions shall have the authority to create banks and development authorities for the purposes of promoting savings and investment.

Note:   Here is one area where Bergonia is more centralized than the United States, where the various states have the right to adopt their own commercial codes.  Bergonia historically has suffered from regionalism at least as much as the U.S., and much of that manifested as fierce economic competition during the 1800s.  The various states also had widely disparate commercial codes, reflecting frustrating capitalist development.  So, at the urging of his new capitalist friends, dictator John Rarsa imposed a uniform commercial code for the entire nation, thus setting the precedent.

Section Eighteen:

Health and Support

The commonwealth shall set medical standards, and regulate the production and distribution of pharmaceuticals.  The commonwealth shall also