Re: <nettime> Mexico City is crowdsourcing its new constitution

[John Hopkins <jhopkins@neoscenes.net>]

Some may be interested in the failed case of a 'citizen's constitutional 
rewrite' that occured in Iceland five years ago. It was a more-or-less complete 
failure (on electorial technicalities and with heavy right-wing 
'Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn' party opposition -- the very same one whose PM was a 
principle actor in the failure of the banking system -- and the same party that 
enjoyed a recent post-crash resurgence despite their abominable record.)

A few pertinent links:

http://tinyurl.com/mtc2onq

http://tinyurl.com/zkz5vgn

http://tinyurl.com/hfnncbu

I know a few of the folks who were part of the elected constitutional assembly 
in 2010 -- but haven't had a sustained conversation with any of them about what 
went wrong in their opinion.

Some of the more radical points in the draft (as listed in the wikipedia article):

-- ‘one person, one vote' (in the existing system, a candidate 'requires much 
more votes to be elected as an MP in Reykjavik than in one of the more rural areas')
-- a referendum on abolishing the state church (polls indicated 73% would vote 
in favour of separation of church and state);
-- a number of changes to government, including not automatically making the 
biggest party's leader PM, introducing a ten-year limit for PM terms, and that a 
vote of no confidence should have to include a proposed replacement PM.
-- obliging the state to provide internet access to all citizens;
-- introducing a three-term limit for the President;
-- allowing 15% of voters to put bills to parliament or call for a referendum on 
proposed laws;
-- restricting government size to ten ministers, and barring ministers from 
being MPs at the same time;
-- declaring Iceland's natural resources public property.

jh

--
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD
grounded on a granite batholith
twitter: @neoscenes
http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



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