Consitiutions of the High Frontier

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "John Frazer"
> (Typo in title left uncorrected to keep this in thread)
>
> "babbler36" wrote:
> >How do you the settlements in space would be organized? I think
there would
> >a central
> government for each high planetary orbit. It would confederal than
federal,
> more like the UN,
> the EU or Swizerland, than Australia, Canada or the USA.
> >...
> >Since the settlements are not physical connected, the central
govenment
> >could not
> become overpower indivdual settlement government.
> >They would regulate the internal politics of the settlement.
>
> This must be a typo. How would a central government regulate the
internal
> politics of the settlements if it isn't overpowering? I think you
meant that
> it isn't overpowering, so it can't regulate the internal matters of
each
> settlement, just mediate the inter-settlement relations.

Yes, that is was I meat.

> Are you familiar with the history of the 13 American states under
the
> Articles of Confederation?
> "For fatuous proceedings and a low level of snarling debate to match
what we
> see today in the UN security council, one must go to the records of
the
> Continental Congress. That body was of no more consequence than the
> assemblies in (the UN or League of Nations)
> "The World Must be Governed" Vernon Nash
>
> The government under the Confederation had no teeth, like the UN and
the
> League of Nations, and for the same reason: the bodies who
originated those
> confederacies deliberately made it so the confederacy is toothless
so those
> organizing bodies can still have their ways and do whatever they
want,
> whenever they want.
> The UN is impotent to stop wars because it has no teeth,
specifically
> because the big 5 made it that way (UK, US, USSR, France, and the
PRC).
> The history of international relations shows undoubtedly that if
there's no
> central authority with legal authority over the separate nations,
then the
> rights of the people will be abused; Either by powerful economic
entities
> making unjust and undemocratic trade agreements, or by the members
waging
> wars among themselves which the confederate congress is impotent to
do
> anything about except maybe pass "resolutions".
> Despite the apparent manifold excuses for wars, the one thing they
all have
> in common is that they result when single social units (tribes,
cities,
> nations states, etc) exercise "sovereignty" over each other. The
only way
> wars have stopped permanently is when these small units became
equally
> represented under a higher authority, and subject to the mediation
decisions
> of that higher authority.
>
> The framers of the US constitution made the federal government
powerful
> deliberately so that it could arbitrate disputes between the states
and stop
> wars.
> The federalists were very cognizant of the fine line between too
much power
> in the central governing authority, and too little; they had just
come out
> from under a dictatorship with sole supreme authority, and had
muddled
> through a decade of increasing strife and discord under a
confederacy with
> too little authority.
> If you have any misgivings about the way the US has turned out, or
any other
> federalist government, then count it as lessone learned, and
examples of
> what not to do.
>
> Loose confederacies with no central authority over disputes of the
members
> is a recipe for wars.
> I shudder to think of the available energies and techniques for
> concentrating and directing those energies that the members of a
space
> colony confederacy will have. Each will effectively have the power
to be a
> nuclear state, even if they don't build A-bombs.
> No city or continent on Earth or colony in space will be safe if
they have
> the "sovereign right" to unilaterally use war to settle disputes and
have
> their own way by throwing their weight around.

Good Points. The central authory I see for the Astrogenes would have
an army, as to defend from invaders from Earth or other planets, as
well as keeping law and order though out the high orbits. Although it
should act as a medator between settlements.