Five Things a Conservative would love about Bergonia:

1. The organs of government must keep balanced budgets. except for designated "capital" expenditures on infrastructure & long-range needs like scientific research and public health with future pay-off.

2.  "States rights" means something in this federal system-- Bergonians would applaud some of the recent US Supreme Court decisions that protect state power against federal encroachments.

3.  Religion has a guaranteed place in national life; there is even limited religious instruction in many schools-- though often more than one religion.

4.  There is no income tax for the vast majority of people, only sole proprietors file income tax, as do cooperatives and other enterprises.  

5.  The average citizen has the right to own and use firearms.  Many people hunt in Bergonia-- deer hunting is absolutely necessary to control the population-- and many people belong to shooting clubs and "militia clubs."  While Bergonia and many other countries are full of firearms, very few of them have the crazy murder rates of Columbia, Brazil, Mexico & the U.S.  It should be clear to the most obtuse fool that the mere presence of firearms does not automatically produce violence. 

However, since conservatives worship mammon at their alters before all other gods and fetishes, they could never reconcile themselves with the Bergonian way.  Even though Bergonia manifests many supposedly core conservative values, no one should be fooled that these values are anything more than bangles, costumes and pretexts for the TRUE conservative, which he wears to confuse the common man. 

 

"In faith, fraternity and hope,
we establish this Fourth Commonwealth,
and resolve to proceed democratically
in every endeavor."

National Government

SOCIALISM -- a very general introduction to the idea. 

Bergonian SOCIALIST THEORY

THE CONSTITUTION of the Constitution of the "Democratic Commonwealth of Bergonia."

NATIONAL GOVERNMENT --  a unicameral Congress with law-making powers, a strong Executive Council that acts as "steering committee," chaired by a President with limited powers. 

PARTIES, ELECTIONS  & POLITICS -- strong local political clubs federate into national parties.  Public media control gives the candidates direct exposure to the voters.

2004 ELECTION COVERAGE

FOREIGN RELATIONS -- with the US, Europe, Latin America, etc.  

STATES  & COUNTIES -- powerful local governments, borders drawn to accommodate ethnicities.

EDUCATION & SCHOOLS -- Principle #6 requires free universal education.  Principle #5 requires localized control over schools.

THE SOCIALIST ECONOMY -- overview of Bergonia's socialism, dominated by worker-owned cooperatives. 

SPECIFIC ECONOMIC SECTORS -- a variegated economy, comprised of  worker cooperatives, a few large monopolies, and a sector of small businesses.

FLAGS of the commonwealth, the states and the parties.

The Eight Principles of the Revolution
(why there are eight stars on the flag):

  1. Liberty:  "Personal liberty belongs to every man and woman  to speak and to write, to organize and petition authority, to choose work, life and travel according to individual conscience and taste, with no state or workplace censorship."

  2. Equality:  "There shall be no ruling class.  All men and women shall have equal claim to the the good life, and equal access to power.  All races, creeds, communities and religions deserve both equality and autonomy, and no language or religion shall be suppressed."

  3. Democracy:  "All authority in every part of society shall be subordinate to democratic selection and control.  The people and workers shall either govern directly or choose their governors."

  4. Socialism/Syndicalism:  "The common good shall direct all policy, and the means of production will pass out of private hands, and into the cooperative hands of the workers and farmers, who shall enjoy the full fruits of their labor."

  5. Decentralization/Federalism:  "Local power is better than national power.  Plural power is better than a single party.  Divided power is better than consolidated power."

  6. Education and Science:  "All the people shall obtain education in the arts and sciences at free schools and universities, and science shall guide policy."

    7.

  7. Religion:   "In a free society all religions shall have equal freedom to preach and practice."

  8. Public Ownership of Land:  "The land and natural resources of the country shall be allocated, protected and used to the benefit of all the people."

    9.

  "Virtually no one who calls himself a socialist has any real vision of how socialist institutions would work, or how a socialist society would feel. 

   "Lacking any lucid vision of a destination, socialists have failed to blaze a straight path.  No wonder the masses don't enthusiastically follow them.  No wonder so many socialists succumbed to Stalin's sterile illusions.

   "This will become socialism's great tragedy-- that it merely opposed capitalism without ever offering a clear alternative."  

         --Pablo Alvarez Partaga, Spanish ambassador to Bergonia, 1934, (he later took refuge in Berg after the Republic fell to Franco).

 

   "Good men can disagree about the form and mechanics of real socialist government, or even whether we should even call it a government, but I do know one thing for certain, which is that the thing I choose to call socialism will not tolerate any form of dictatorship."

--Permado Acuila, 1934 

 

 

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rev. 5 Jun 06