Is the Penn. Constitution of 1776 a better Model?

[EPIC1934]

Probably there are more than a few on this site who know about this constitution, as many seem to be very familiar with anti-federalist arguements.

Basically, this state constitution had a big ol engine under the hood-- the legistlative branch was by far the strongest.

It was unicameral , which meant that a law only had to be passed by one branch.

Also-- AND HERE IS WHERE I THINK THIS COULD BE APPEALING TO LIBERTARIANS AND "SOCIALISTS" ALIKE BY ATTEMPTING TO RECONCILE WHAT WE HAVE BEEN SCHOOLED INTO THINKING ARE IRRECONCILABLES-- that legislature was elected every year!

The effect of this one year terms was intended to prevent the financial class from bribing the longer term alternative and then pretending to be populist right before the election-- eg. five years of Hillarys pure Bush enabeling with her wolf blitzkrieg AEI assisted "transformation" in the year of the prez campaign.

With one year terms these MRs. Libermans would not be able to fool so many, as indeed Obama has too.

The Federalist Papers make explicit this connection btw. longer terms of the Senate and its sensitity to the concerns of the financial and mercantile class.

In short we have been trained to believe that economic policies that benefit the majority of the population necessarily involve all the bad parts of big governement.

I agree there are indeed many very negative effects of big government.

I am less convinced than many liberals and socialists that the serious ills of statism are the necessary byproducts of economic policies that help the majority.

With yearly elections-- and this could only work with a very differenet and more democratic press and broadcast media, one that actully praciced the idea that given the uncensored debate between REALLY different and compeeting ideas, the better idea could win out-- I think it might be possible to create policies that are better economically for the majority without the ills of statism.

I believe that the cure for our current Corporate Oligarchy is nothing less than true democracy, a democracy that is illussory if it does not start with media democracy that can create the democratic public sphere that the people of 1776 imagined.

[mediahasyou]

anarcho-capitalism is a better model: http://www.voluntaryist.com/articles/079a.php

[NMCB3]

"Limited" government is a Utopian fantasy. The Penn Constitution has been relegated to the scrap heap of history where it belongs, our present document needs to join it. :)

[Mesogen]

Wow. So a few weeks ago Michael Badnarik had a show where he asked "How would you change the constitution?" I would have made changes similar to what I see here in the Penn constitution of 1776. I never heard of it before.

But, I would have had a 3 member executive council. Each member would have a 6 year term with a one term limit. A new one is elected every two years, along with the representatives in the unicameral legislature, who would have a 6 term limit. They would be called the senior, junior, and freshman executive, or something similar. They would have to unanimously sign a bill for it to be law. Only the senior executive would be commander in chief though. Anyway, their responsibilities would be divided, like one would be the one to appoint judges, etc.

Also in my model, there would be "instant judicial review" where legislation is sent to the supreme court where it is vetted for any conflicts with the constitution. If there are, the legislation is not allowed out of the House to be signed by the EC. Changes must be made and submitted to the SC again and again until the legislation is up to snuff. None of this waiting for a litigant shit.

Also, unified budgets would be unconstitutional. every department must submit a budget independently and each budget must go through the legislative process, including 'instant' judicial review.

There were a lot of other things in there, but this was the basic framework.

[travisAlbert]

I actually kind of like the Pennsylvania model. It was a product of the radical republicanism of Thomas Paine and his crew. They believed that a unicameral legislature would better serve the common people and give them a voice in government. John Adams and many other federalists wanted a bicameral legislature, much like England's. Their ideal was to have an upper house of wealthy people and a lower house of commoners. Paine predicted that the upper house would dominate and rule over the commoners. The Pennsylvania model was also one in which was to be continually perfected over time. It almost reminds me of NI4D