21st Century Cosmopolis:
Constitution
for a Better World
A Civilization
based on Self-Governing Cities and Townships, Cooperative Self-Governed
Workplaces and Public Finance, Sustainable Agriculture and Renewable Energy and
Universal Access to Citizenship, Income and Subsistence. And how we can start
it up now and already have in many places.
Steven Colatrella*
Article I – A Civilization based
on self-governed cities and townships and universal access to citizenship
1.A – the City
and the Township
A city shall be understood to be an urban environment of dense
population that identifies itself publicly as a city together with that part of
the outlying environment and residence areas required to allow for a minimal
relative self-sufficiency in food and natural resources. All the residents of
this area shall be citizens of the city. A first priority for the city shall be
to connect all of its residential and resource areas by light rail, passable road
with electric cars or other such transport as is ecologically sustainable
within that city and which its citizens decide to use (such as boats in some
watery areas), as well as provision of the appropriate means of communication
(common wi-fi connections for all residents for example).
A township shall be understood to be a number of residence areas –
villages, hamlets, towns, and so forth that are combined so as to reach the
critical mass of population and resources needed to be relatively self-sustaining
and to provide the services – such as health care, transportation and education
– required for its citizens to achieve their full potential and to meet their
needs. Townships will thus be generally of greater territorial size and lower
population density but will otherwise function juridically as cities for all
other purposes except where the specific issues of rural life, ecology and
agriculture or related activities are involved. The same prioritization of
linking of all the residence areas of townships by transport and communications
that are efficient and ecologically sustainable shall apply to townships as
they do to cities. Where appropriate, town meetings shall function in place of
the urban neighborhood legislatures and the same process of selecting delegates
with specific mandates and where needed township-wide referenda shall apply.
Resources for this project of integration of the territory of the city or
township will be available through various means including the city’s own
resources and cooperative workplaces, its own local money the creation of which
is limited only by its citizens’ own needs and collective decisions, and by the
world currency that in the first stages after adoption of this constitution.
The availability of this currency, explained in greater detail below, will include extraordinary grants by the
neutral planetary currency agency and taking into account the need for poorer
regions of the world and cities with fewer resources to quickly reach the
worldwide average level of access to technologies such as solar power, wi fi
communications, modern light rail and high speed trains and satellite
technology, so that they will be easily able to obtain these from those regions
that have these in abundance. Further, as described below, graduates will
accompany technology transfers as direct forms of grants, spending a required
year in cities in the Global South to be sure that these have access and
training in the use of these means.
1.B – Universal access
to citizenship and self-government of cities by citizens
Every individual human being resident of a city or of a component part
of a township for more than 90 days will
be a citizen of that city, with all the rights and duties that these entail in
that locale.
Everyone will be a citizen of some city or township wherever they live
in the world unless they intentionally opt out by living outside all existing
city boundaries and declare to public authorities in a nearby city or township
their intention to opt out.
By opting out, a person foregoes the rights and duties of a citizen, and
access to the resources available in a city will be provided only on the basis
determined by that city’s citizens.
Every city will have as its ultimate governing body the legislatures of
its neighborhoods, the full resident adult population voting in city-wide
referenda or assemblies where feasible, (as determined locally with regard to
geographic residency and age but no other basis for exclusion) and implementation
of decisions will be carried out by the delegates sent to city-wide assemblies
and councils of administration chosen from among these with mandates to enact
the decisions taken locally by the residents themselves.
Each city and township will provide at least one day a week in which its
citizens, except those providing emergency and life-and-death services, will be
free from work so they will be able to attend assemblies, and carry out their
citizenship duties. All enterprises –
cooperatives and those small-scale private firms permitted in some cases by
cities and townships – must remain closed except for those providing necessary
life and death services. Those working in such services will be provided
alternative means of participating – taking turns or other means as determined by
each city and township in negotiation with the cooperative or organization in
question.
Upon arrival in a new city or township territory, a person, family or
group must inform the city public authority of their presence, so that the 90
day period may be officially counted. Since income for use in the local
currency, access to work and other activities and voting and governing rights
are based on citizenship which is easily available, there is a strong incentive
for everyone to inform the city or township of their presence.
Should persons arrive in a city or township and remain for 90 days
without the intention of taking residency and citizenship in that city, they
shall announce their intentions to the public authority in that city and shall
retain citizenship of the city of permanent residence so long as this accords
with the residency and citizenship rules of that city as determined by its
citizens. Should this option not be available, the city in which such persons
are newly arrived shall provide them with citizenship even if this is not their
intention. Except for persons opting out geographically and politically, no
person shall remain without a residence and a citizenship status of some city.
Upon reaching adulthood, or as an
adult upon having resided more than 90 days every citizen resident shall be
enrolled to vote and to having full voting, administrative and other rights and
duties of citizens of a city.
There being many cities in the world, therefore cities may, within reason,
set some limits for periods of time as to how many new residents may arrive.
This number may not under any circumstances be less than 1% of the population
of that city as of January 1 of that same year over the period of a calendar
year. Should this quota (10,000 new residents per 1 million population, or 10
per 1000) not yet be reached by December
31 of the same year, no restrictions on new arrivals and new citizens will be
allowed.
Each city shall build, provide and maintain however a sufficient number
of housing units at a high quality standard of safety, health and comfort equal
to the total number of households (and of various sizes according to the likely
sizes of families, groups or households), plus at least 1% which must be maintained
as available for new arrivals.
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