Chapter 424: Constitution Ratified

Over the next few days, the summit continued without interruption. That wasn't to say that nobody tried to sabotage or interrupt the proceedings, but they were easily fended off by the ARES troopers patrolling the city and the Aegis teams guarding the leaders. But while New York City was relatively peaceful, that wasn't the case for the rest of the world, as protests sprang up with every article of the new world constitution that was ratified.

......

On December 30th, President Nazarbayev banged his gavel for the last time as he said, "With the ratification of the final Article of the Universal Constitution—"

Everyone in the room applauded for a long while, feeling the heavy burden lift from their shoulders. The applause lasted until President Nazarbayev tapped his microphone, causing the raucous applause to slowly die down until it was quiet enough for him to continue his speech.

"I would like to say that our job is completed, but Article II has yet to be completely enshrined into the constitution due to the circumstances in which it was ratified. Mr. Michael, I request that you complete it and make everything clear so the Universal Constitution can be put into effect."

Aron stood and walked to the podium, not planning on speaking from his chair like he had the previous few days. He calmly rested his hands atop the podium and adjusted the microphone, then looked at each world leader in the assembly hall before saying, "Thank you, President Nazarbayev, for providing me the opportunity to clarify the article of governance.

"I've thought long and hard about the weaknesses of empires. And I've developed counters for them and will be introducing those as part of the empire I'll be establishing here."

The holographic projector Aron had brought to the assembly hall came back to life and began providing visuals for people again, as was almost always the case whenever an Edenian delivered a speech or press briefing.

"So the empire will be an improved form of historical feudal governments. First, all authority will be vested in the emperor, and there will be no permanent nobility or strictly defined classes. There will be three main ministries: the ministry of the interior, the ministry of the exterior, and the ministry of defense.

"The ministry of the interior will be responsible for all governance within the imperial sphere of influence. It will be led in day-to-day operations by a minister appointed by the emperor, who will in turn appoint roving positions. All appointments will be for a single lifetime and based on a 100-point assessment that judges potential appointees based on their history, experience, education, service record, and personality traits. There will be no hereditary positions, but descendants of a currently serving government representative will be awarded a set number of bonus points for their assessment, should they choose to continue in the government.

"A government can't be run by a single person, thus those appointees will be granted limited representative power. And in order to limit corruption as much as we possibly can, appointees will be transferred to new duty stations every five years. Those transfers can be promotions, simple transfers, or demotions, depending on their actions in their current duties.

"The positions will be broken down into regional lords, city mayors, town barons, and village chiefs. There will also be chief judges and constables responsible for investigating crimes and putting criminals on trial, once caught by the constabulary, at each level as well. Once we have outgrown the cradle of our civilization here in the solar system, there will be sector representatives and cluster governors as well.

"The ministry of the exterior will be responsible for exploration, scientific research and discoveries, and negotiating with any non-hostile aliens encountered in the course of exploring the universe.

"And the ministry of defense will be responsible for dealing with threats both internal and otherwise." Aron paused to give listeners and watchers time to digest the overall structure of the government, then cleared his throat and continued speaking.

"There will of course be imperial agencies, such as the imperial police agency, imperial fire and rescue agency, imperial health agency, imperial education agency, and so on. You can check our website for a detailed list of agencies and their areas of responsibility."

As Aron continued speaking, the holographic screen continually updated itself with links to various websites for ministries and agencies.

"The ministry of defense will be directly under imperial control, and completely centralized. Every chain of command requires a direct line from the top all the way to the bottom, after all. And since the imperial family will be paying the vast majority of the budget for the ministry of defense, isn't it only fair for the imperial family to control it?" Aron grinned.

"Now on to anti-corruption measures. I've already spoken of one of them, that is, the necessary transfers for imperial representatives. No government is perfect and there will always be a certain level of corruption inherent to it. But by transferring everyone on a five-year cycle, we can limit that corruption and control its spread.

"The imperial family will also establish an imperial court consisting of every imperial representative above the rank of city mayors that will be responsible for advising the emperor and bringing events to their attention that would otherwise go missed." While Aron was set on becoming the emperor of humanity and controlling all of the power, he recognized the need to give up some concessions for the appearance of fairness, at least. These positions would be necessary in the future, regardless; there would definitely come a time when he wouldn't be able to maintain control over everything everywhere at all times, like he was nearing on Earth.

"More information will be released on our website, but that is the broad strokes of the empire of humanity as I envision it. But in the interests of time and getting things done," he looked at President Nazarbayev and continued, "I would like to move for the empire of humanity to be immediately ratified and enshrined in the constitution as Article II: Governance."

The Kazakhstanian president nodded to Aron, then banged his gavel and announced that the constitution was complete. "With the authority vested in me," he said, "I declare our new constitution complete. It will take effect on the first of January, and that day will also mark the day the Terran Empire."

[second chapter will be uploaded on the 11am BJT]