Ok, let’s say that you get to scrap your countries constitution and get to create a new one. What would it look like? What branches of government would there be and how would officials from those branches be selected? How would these branches operate? How would you enforce your constitution? How would officials be held accountable?

Government basically boils down to the availability and accessibility of valuable and fundamental resources. Basically, land, water, air, food, labor and energy (energy and labor being the largest categories).

Government oversees the protection and regulation of the consumption, trade and disposal of materials. Hence, regulatory bodies such as the EPA, SEC, etc. In addition, government also exists for civil/national protection (FBI, CIA, etc). People generally steal, kill and vandalize due wanting something they can not have. Government has organizations for the creation of common law as well as upholding laws. If we live in infinite (or exceptionally large) abundance, we really only have to worry about human emotions: hate and jealousy (which, incidentally, have to do with limited resources, in most cases).

So, you can't really ask, "What type of government would you make" without stating availability of resources we'd have and what type of interaction we should have with neighboring countries, if any.

If you take any existing country today, it really isn't that easy to just go and scrap the constitution. Try that in the United States and you'd be eaten alive. In order to do something that significant would require a fictional populace and circumstances - or massive nuclear destruction.

I am an anarchist, so I would probably experiment with that.

absolute dictatorship,... And guess who I would trust as the dictator?

Quote: Original post by Talroth
absolute dictatorship,... And guess who I would trust as the dictator?

YodaTheCoder?

Honestly? We all like to imagine that the current govt. is fundamentally flawed and needs to be torn down and replaced, but most of the failings of any political system are down to the fact that people are corrupt, stupid, selfish and lazy. You can't escape from the side effects of these factors. I'm happy with the current system of govt in the UK. Although I wish that a few things were different, I cant begin to imagine creating a better one from scratch.

It's quite tricky in NZ. I'd love to see it become a republic (I find the very concept of a monarchy offensive), but that would void the Treaty of Waitangi. At which point, kiwis would actually have to figure out who owns NZ. So, somewhat ironically, the very people you would imagine would prefer to see NZ as independent (i.e. the indigenous Maori) are actually opposed to it.

Other than that, I feel the current parliamentary democracy is as good a political system as you can have. You could fiddle around with an executive branch and so on, but I've yet to see any evidence that it would make peoples lives better.

I've always wondered how well a Deus-Ex style benevolent AI-controlled government would work in reality (assuming you don't let people hack/corrupt the AI, ala Butlerian Jihad).

Quote: Original post by Nypyren
I've always wondered how well a Deus-Ex style benevolent AI-controlled government would work in reality (assuming you don't let people hack/corrupt the AI, ala Butlerian Jihad).

Didn't the hacking and corruption of the AI come thousands of years before the Butlerian Jihad?

Quote: Original post by Nypyren
I've always wondered how well a Deus-Ex style benevolent AI-controlled government would work in reality (assuming you don't let people hack/corrupt the AI).

This assumes artificial intelligence is "perfect" intelligence. [smile]

@speciesUnknown

I think I would have similar opinions to you. I see democracy as being about as benevolent as a government can be. In Ireland all the parties are bickering about the recession and who is to blame, but I can't honestly say that I think any of them would have handled it better than those in government at the time (though I think there are some who would have done much worse).

In Ireland, changes to the law are made by the same group of people who oversee the budget, etc. I think this is pretty common in many countries. I sometimes wonder if it would be better if these powers were held by two different groups.