Government on a Neighboring Planet

72:2.1This con­ti­nen­tal na­tion now has a rep­re­sen­ta­tive gov­ern­ment with a cen­trally lo­cated na­tional cap­i­tal. The cen­tral gov­ern­ment con­sists of a strong fed­er­a­tion of one hun­dred com­par­a­tively free states. These states elect their gov­er­nors and leg­is­la­tors for ten years, and none are el­i­gi­ble for re-elec­tion. State judges are ap­pointed for life by the gov­er­nors and con­firmed by their leg­is­la­tures, which con­sist of one rep­re­sen­ta­tive for each one hun­dred thou­sand cit­i­zens.

72:2.2There are five dif­fer­ent types of metropoli­tan gov­ern­ment, de­pend­ing on the size of the city, but no city is per­mit­ted to have more than one mil­lion in­hab­i­tants. On the whole, these mu­nic­i­pal gov­ern­ing schemes are very sim­ple, di­rect, and eco­nom­i­cal. The few of­fices of city ad­min­is­tra­tion are keenly sought by the high­est types of cit­i­zens.

72:2.3The fed­eral gov­ern­ment em­braces three co-or­di­nate di­vi­sions: ex­ec­u­tive, leg­isla­tive, and ju­di­cial. The fed­eral chief ex­ec­u­tive is elected ev­ery six years by uni­ver­sal ter­ri­to­rial suf­frage. He is not el­i­gi­ble for re-elec­tion ex­cept upon the pe­ti­tion of at least sev­enty-five state leg­is­la­tures con­curred in by the re­spec­tive state gov­er­nors, and then but for one term. He is ad­vised by a super­cab­i­net com­posed of all liv­ing ex-chief ex­ec­u­tives.

72:2.4The leg­isla­tive di­vi­sion em­braces three houses:

72:2.51. The up­per house is elected by in­dus­trial, pro­fes­sional, ag­ri­cul­tural, and other groups of work­ers, bal­lot­ing in ac­cor­dance with eco­nomic func­tion.

72:2.62. The lower house is elected by cer­tain or­ga­ni­za­tions of so­ci­ety em­brac­ing the so­cial, po­lit­i­cal, and philo­sophic groups not in­cluded in in­dus­try or the pro­fes­sions. All cit­i­zens in good stand­ing par­tic­i­pate in the elec­tion of both classes of rep­re­sen­ta­tives, but they are dif­fer­ently grouped, de­pend­ing on whether the elec­tion per­tains to the up­per or lower house.

72:2.73. The third house—the el­der states­men—em­braces the vet­er­ans of civic ser­vice and in­cludes many dis­tin­guished per­sons nom­i­nated by the chief ex­ec­u­tive, by the re­gional (sub­fed­eral) ex­ec­u­tives, by the chief of the su­preme tri­bu­nal, and by the pre­sid­ing of­fi­cers of ei­ther of the other leg­isla­tive houses. This group is lim­ited to one hun­dred, and its mem­bers are elected by the ma­jor­ity ac­tion of the el­der states­men them­selves. Mem­ber­ship is for life, and when va­can­cies oc­cur, the per­son re­ceiv­ing the largest bal­lot among the list of nom­i­nees is thereby duly elected. The scope of this body is purely ad­vi­sory, but it is a mighty reg­u­la­tor of pub­lic opin­ion and ex­erts a pow­er­ful in­flu­ence upon all branches of the gov­ern­ment.

72:2.8Very much of the fed­eral ad­min­is­tra­tive work is car­ried on by the ten re­gional (sub­fed­eral) au­thor­i­ties, each con­sist­ing of the as­so­ci­a­tion of ten states. These re­gional di­vi­sions are wholly ex­ec­u­tive and ad­min­is­tra­tive, hav­ing nei­ther leg­isla­tive nor ju­di­cial func­tions. The ten re­gional ex­ec­u­tives are the per­sonal ap­pointees of the fed­eral chief ex­ec­u­tive, and their term of of­fice is con­cur­rent with his—six years. The fed­eral su­preme tri­bu­nal ap­proves the ap­point­ment of these ten re­gional ex­ec­u­tives, and while they may not be reap­pointed, the re­tir­ing ex­ec­u­tive au­to­mat­i­cally be­comes the as­so­ciate and ad­viser of his suc­ces­sor. Oth­er­wise, these re­gional chiefs choose their own cab­i­nets of ad­min­is­tra­tive of­fi­cials.

72:2.9This na­tion is ad­ju­di­cated by two ma­jor court sys­tems—the law courts and the so­cioe­co­nomic courts. The law courts func­tion on the fol­low­ing three lev­els:

72:2.101. Mi­nor courts of mu­nic­i­pal and lo­cal ju­ris­dic­tion, whose de­ci­sions may be ap­pealed to the high state tri­bu­nals.

72:2.112. State su­preme courts, whose de­ci­sions are fi­nal in all mat­ters not in­volv­ing the fed­eral gov­ern­ment or jeop­ardy of cit­i­zen­ship rights and lib­er­ties. The re­gional ex­ec­u­tives are em­pow­ered to bring any case at once to the bar of the fed­eral su­preme court.

72:2.123. Fed­eral su­preme court—the high tri­bu­nal for the ad­ju­di­ca­tion of na­tional con­tentions and the ap­pel­late cases com­ing up from the state courts. This su­preme tri­bu­nal con­sists of twelve men over forty and un­der sev­enty-five years of age who have served two or more years on some state tri­bu­nal, and who have been ap­pointed to this high po­si­tion by the chief ex­ec­u­tive with the ma­jor­ity ap­proval of the super­cab­i­net and the third house of the leg­isla­tive as­sem­bly. All de­ci­sions of this su­preme ju­di­cial body are by at least a two-thirds vote.

72:2.13The so­cioe­co­nomic courts func­tion in the fol­low­ing three di­vi­sions:

72:2.141. Pa­ren­tal courts, as­so­ci­ated with the leg­isla­tive and ex­ec­u­tive di­vi­sions of the home and so­cial sys­tem.

72:2.152. Ed­u­ca­tional courts—the ju­ridi­cal bod­ies con­nected with the state and re­gional school sys­tems and as­so­ci­ated with the ex­ec­u­tive and leg­isla­tive branches of the ed­u­ca­tional ad­min­is­tra­tive mech­a­nism.

72:2.163. In­dus­trial courts—the ju­ris­dic­tional tri­bu­nals vested with full au­thor­ity for the set­tle­ment of all eco­nomic mis­un­der­stand­ings.

72:2.17The fed­eral su­preme court does not pass upon so­cioe­co­nomic cases ex­cept upon the three-quar­ters vote of the third leg­isla­tive branch of the na­tional gov­ern­ment, the house of el­der states­men. Oth­er­wise, all de­ci­sions of the pa­ren­tal, ed­u­ca­tional, and in­dus­trial high courts are fi­nal.