Jun 25, 2007

Discussion of the First Draft of the Constitution, part 5

Chapter IV Legislative Power
I originally saw this as the heart of the document, although I no longer hold that opinion.

Article 21: The Assembly; the Senate
Roughly analogous to the American Congress or the House of Commons. This section is the basics of how many senators, how they vote, terms, etc. Very long! It also discusses the First Senator; originally, the First Senator was conceived as analogous to a Prime Minister and largely in control of the day-to-day of the Government. This section, like all the others, totally fails to mention that Senators are all elected "at large" in a List Proportional election system. Of course, a List Proportional system also demands that the constitution address such issues as political parties, independent candidates, etc. - which it absolutely fails to do.

No comments: