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Concepts explained
20 articles on the ideas the Constitution relies on, grouped by subject, with a plain glossary of 45 shorter terms and a table of the words people actually use.
Property and the economy
UsufructThe right to use and manage something you do not own, for as long as you are actually using it.
The residual unit of accountA personal, equal, expiring token that allocates small luxuries in an economy with no money.
How the plan is madeA five-year cycle in which councils state, a secretariat computes, and each level negotiates what the level below could not settle.
Contribution without compulsionEveryone owes their capacity to the common life, everyone is presumed to give it, and nothing whatever depends on proving it.
What happens when an enterprise failsSupport is allowed, but it is public, capped, dated, and ends in reorganisation if it has not worked.
Ecology and limits
Ecological budgetA set of published ceilings on what the Republic may take from the world in a given period, and floors on what it must put back.
Rights of nature and universal standingEcosystems hold rights of their own, and any person at all may go to court on their behalf.
Steady state and throughputThe Republic holds its total use of energy and materials constant, and spends every efficiency gain on sufficiency.
Government and participation
Drawing by lotFilling an office by random selection from a defined pool, used here for courts, watchdogs and deliberation.
General competence and subsidiarityCommunes may act on anything not expressly taken from them, and doubt is resolved in their favour.
Participatory democracyThe name the Republic gives its own form, meaning that participation is not reducible to voting every five years.
Law, courts and procedure
Organic lawA reinforced class of statute that fills in the Constitution's detail, and cannot be amended by an ordinary majority.
Declaration of incompatibilityWhat happens when the Constitutional Court finds that a law of the Assembly breaches the Constitution.
The unamendable coreEleven things that no majority, no referendum and no constitutional convention may touch.
Restorative panelsResidents drawn by lot agree repair with the people involved, and may impose no punishment at all.
Emergency and derogationWhat a state of emergency may reach, how long it may run, and the rights that survive it untouched.
Rights and their enforcement
Minimum coreThe level of provision below which a life of dignity becomes impossible, enforceable in court today, with nothing deferred to a later date.
Essential provisionTwelve elements of provision furnished free at the point of use to every person, conditioned on nothing at all.
Decisions made by machineAn automated system may assist a decision about a person, and in no case may it take one.