Constitution

# Preamble

We the People of this Household, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common Defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution of the Household.

# Article 1: Governance

## Section 1: Members

All adult Residents of the Household shall belong in one of two classes: Members and Guests.

### Membership Requirements

Membership shall be given initially to the founders of the Household. Thereafter, Membership shall be conferred upon an aspirant Guest if three quarters of all Members, present and absent, vote to bestow it. Children of Members may become Members in the same way, though in these cases, the vote may be more a ceremonial initiation to adulthood and the duties of Membership than a contested entry.

Marriage to a member also does not automatically confer membership. Members are encouraged to marry good, friendly spouses, who get on well with the rest of the Household and are enthusiastic about the life of a member, but the heart is capricious, and sometimes, regrettably, a member will have to choose between living with a fiancé and living in the group. Other members will generally be welcoming, but it would be destructive to the whole project of mutual generosity and dependency if any person not compatible with the group were automatically given membership.

In considering applicants for membership, the following criteria should be considered:

## Section 2: Guests

Any Member may invite any number of Guests for any length of time, and any traveler or visitor who asks shall be admitted as a Guest, unless a majority of the present Members disagrees with their admission. Guests may be politely asked to depart if 1) the inviting Member or 2) a simple majority of the remaining present Members (excluding the inviting Member) wishes that the Guest go.

## Section 3: Norms and Communal Spirit

Members of the Household shall strive to serve each other and to put the welfare of others before their own. Members are expected to give much more than is ever asked of them. Members shall love one another as kin, take care of one another, show up for one another. Members shall consider the consequences of their actions in terms of the group.

Members shall not consider the group as primarily an instrument to further their individual interest, but they shall seek to help the interests of other members, and of the whole. In addition to legally imposed duties, members shall feel compelled by communal spirit to give liberally of whatever they can contribute, whether of money, time, real estate, specialized labor, or wisdom, but they shall seek to avoid invidious comparisons of their own contributions with others’.

Love and generosity are necessary to make the otherwise tedious, difficult, and expensive business of running a household fulfilling and even delightful. Since love and generosity are impossible to effect by force, and indeed, actions that otherwise express love and generosity may be rendered odious by proximity to the use of force, legally imposed duties should be few in order not to curtail the ability of members to love their work.

Members should treat each other and guests with understanding and forgiveness. In the case of offense, before seeking any legal solution, offended members should bring up the offense promptly with the offender, and both should seek a resolution, with a spirit of tolerance on the one hand, deference on the other, and a mutual respect for and willingness to compromise with one another.

Many of the acts under this Constitution are not laws stricto sensu; they do not lend themselves to punishment in their breach either because they are insufficiently specific or because no adequate remedy can reasonably be made to their victims. They do however represent the conscious collective judgment of the community. These norms are written down because members must agree to follow them as though they were law.

The following sections’ legalism should not be construed as sufficient to “promote the general Welfare,” and cannot, by itself, ensure “domestic Tranquility.” No system of laws, however well-constructed, can replace the only sound fundament on which rests all domestic happiness: abundant love, emotional openness, communication, patient listening, and generosity of spirit.

## Section 4: Statutory Law

A set of written statutory laws and precepts, beginning with this Constitution, shall be maintained and posted visibly in the house. Legislative sessions may be called at any time by any member when a quorum can be gathered, physically or virtually, where all Members at the House at any time in the last week constitutes a quorum.

In such sessions, laws may be passed by a simple majority of members. Laws may also be repealed by a simple majority. Changes to the Constitution, however, require two thirds of all members, present and absent.

Subsection 4a:  Electoral options:

Points System,:

A law question is suggestedraised. After a lawquestion is suggestedraised, people decide whether they choose to vote on this law, without knowing who else will be voting on the law, only knowing the person that suggested the law, and the contents of the law. The number of people that choose to vote, called v, is now the voting number.

Each voting member has v votes to cast on this issue, should they choose to, in addition to their point balance, which they received from not fully allocating votes in the past. If they choose not to vote with their total allocation, they receive the remainder in their point balance. Nonvoting members will each receive v points in their vote balance, kept track of on a commune point roster. Each point that is not used within 90 days of its being issued is destroyed, however if a law is proposed prior to the 90 day limit, the point may be used, even if the vote is held after the 90 day limit.

In this system, a simple majority of points is required to pass a law.

Normed Majoritarian:

First, each member states their position and indicates their capacity to compromise.

It is expected that members will seek compromises that satisfy everyone to the greatest extent possible, and will only resort to voting when an acceptable consensus cannot be reached through negotiation. Members should know and respect that steamrolling minority opinions entirely is destabilizing to the whole project of living together, and I expect that enough members are reasonable, flexible, and empathetic enough to come to the best decision for the group.

Talking through to find a compromise

Organized consensus method:

1. Each member answers the question “if you could magically get everyone to agree with you, what would you want the commune to do?” on a piece of paper.
2. The questions are loosely sorted into ‘axis’ or camps of likeminded responses by the members and are sorted by rough strength of conviction within each camp.
3. A rough ‘median response’ baseline is determined by the group as a starting point for the debate by eliminating the most extreme positions from each axis one at a time (if an axis is empty, continue with the other axes).
4. Each member answers the questions “Can you live with this law? Is this law better than the current baseline?” on a piece of paper. ‘Dissentors’ are those that cannot live with the law. If the total number of dissentors increases due to such a proposal, it is immediately discarded (as in if the proposal creates too many dissentors in other camps — this effectibely gives ‘group veto power’ defaulting to the median).
5. If 51% of the group feels the new law is better than the previous baseline (see Jackson’s majority rule procedure), replace the baseline. If the number of dissentors is less than the previous baseline, replace the baseline.
6. Any person (or camp) may make a new proposal at this stage and repeat steps 4-6. A person may only make 2 proposals in this way.
7. Adopt the final baseline.

## Section 5: Common Law

The range of antisocial behavior is far too broad to be covered comprehensively by any set of statutory laws. Therefore, a system is necessary for settling domestic disagreements based on common sense. Any disputing members or guests may, in a disagreement, appeal to any other member who is not married to either party, and the reasoned judgment of the latter will be binding until and unless the ruling is overruled by statute in a legislative session. The judge will then describe the facts of the case and the reasoning for their judgment in writing to the best of their ability, and then append this explanation to the Common Law, unless they deem that overwhelming privacy interests make such publicity unseemly. Judges in similar cases shall rule according to that judgment unless they identify egregious errors in its reasoning. If differing in judgment from a facially similar case, they must identify the distinction that makes a prior judgment inapplicable. The common law shall be public.

## Section 6: Enforcement of Law

It is the duty of members to follow laws. Unlike the suppositious one of political philosophy, what you are reading is a literal social contract, which every member actually signs. The laws are given not from on high, or from some corrupt camera in a distant Capitol, but from your closest friends and chosen family.

Still, laws will sometimes be broken. It is also the duty of members to call out infractions. Polite reminders should suffice, but if they are not effective, then the judgment of another member may be necessary. Judicial restraint is encouraged; in most cases where a member is found guilty, an apology and the cessation of the unlawful or unsocial behavior will suffice. If it appears necessary, the judging member may exact proportional compensation to the victim, if there is any specific victim, or to the community. Purely punitive sentences unhelpful to the victim and unproductive to the community shall not be given, but extra chores, transfers of property or space, and short periods of compensatory service to the victim, are all valid, provided they are well-reasoned and proportional to the offence. Punishments considered unfair by the accused may be appealed to yet another member, who will listen to all parties and whose judgment shall be final. Appellate judges should in all but the clearest, most egregious cases respect the first judgment.

# Rights and Duties

## Member Bill of Rights and Duties

1. Free speech. Protected ideas and opinions, but not speech style (ex: no aggressive yelling in the house, no swearing, etc.). Restrictions on place and time are also acceptable (ex: no politics at the dinner table).

2. Right to Privacy (with exception of fear of violence). No secret surveillance (communal decisions are still allowed). No use of personal information like surveillance data, search history, written diaries, effects, etc. without consent. Basically

3. Right to Private Property: you have the right to your own stuff. People can’t steal your stuff from your room or car from garage etc without consent.

4. Parental Rights: The commune can only legislate parenting of ones own children to prevent abuse, or significant negative externalities on the community. Parents are default common law judges to cases involving their own children if available (still subject to appeal if egregiously wrong). Other members may only impose impromptu punishments if the intent is in the best interest of the child, and if immediate and significant consequences are imminent.  Clearly identified household rules with specific consequences may also be enforced, but these should be rare and non-drastic.

5. Out of sight out of mind: No Member shall go into private spaces without the consent of the owner. No legislation shall control behavior in a private space without appeal to externality (simply knowing someone is deviant is not significant justification).

6. Due process: entitled to fair hearing at reasonable speed with right to appeal.

7. The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

## Children’s Bill of Rights and Duties

1. Right to appeal. Children can appeal punishments by parents or other commune members

# Principles of Governance

## Subsidiarity

Decisions of general applicability may be challenged on the grounds that they are better handled at a lower level, especially the family level or classroom level.

## Minimal Bureaucracy

Bureaucratic processes are generally unpleasant and can take up much valuable time. Decisions should seriously account for this cost and weigh it against the benefits of precise, complex bureaucratic action.

Drafted: October 29, 2020