Friday, July 3, 2020

Stabilizing communism: constitution?


Whenever I bring up communism with non-communist friends, the first response is something about corruption or totalitarianism. So I did some research and wrote a 21 page paper (in dutch) explaining what communism really is as according to the Manifesto, why certain well-known attempts at communism in the past went wrong, why most countries that are currently considered to be communist are no longer seen as such by experts, and how it could be stabilized in any future attempts.My personal conclusion is that a good, unchangeable constitution could ensure the rights of the people and prevent corruption in the government. Since I'm autistic and this is a special interest of mine, I decided to actually try to write such a constitution: an array of rules I think a country/commune could thrive with. I'm not even halfway done but it sure is interesting and I was wondering what other communists think should be ensured in such a constitution.​So far I am working on rules stating the following:- Basic necessities and human rights should be a responsibility and priority of any governing bodies. They should not be able to use power for any other policy changes or projects until all humans within their borders have access to those basic necessities and human rights. They should not be able to live in better circumstances than the people they are responsible for, so that their priority will stay with the people.- Inflicting unnecessary harm upon living beings should be forbidden and punished accordingly. Punishment should not, however, include inflicting unnecessary harm upon the living being that has inflicting unnecessary harm onto another. Imprisonment should be a last resort and, when used unnecessarily, should be considered to be a violation of this same rule.- The personal choices of any within the country may not be restricted or punished by governing bodies or others as long as those choices are not in violation of the "do no harm" rule.- Private property must be abolished while personal property must be protected. Humans should be able to lay claim on a house (not multiple houses for one person, though) that the government cannot contest so that people can't be forced out of their childhood homes or punished by being moved to "lesser housing".- Voting through direct/indirect democracy: votes can be retracted at any time; opening oneself up for votes requires giving up a certain amount of personal privacy so that the press can freely share anything people need to know about the person they are voting for; more than a majority vote (2/3rds or 75%, for example, I personally find it silly to make an entire country follow a rule when 49% disagrees with it) must be reached to make decisions; disagreements about laws other than the constitution can perhaps be solved by dividing the country in two smaller countries and letting people join that which they agree with.​I would very much like to hear your opinions, whether you think I should add or delete something. I hope this is an acceptable question to pose in this subreddit. via /r/communism https://ift.tt/2ZwIY1p

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