Six Proposals for a New Republic

[HalflingPrincess 411]

[!] Overnight, a short pamphlet appears on the Honeyhill Noticeboard.

Six Proposals for a New Republic

 

Introduction

Three score and twelve years ago, Rolladango Applefoot brought forth upon the village of Bramblebury an old and inconsistent form of government, concieved in absolutism, and dedicated the proposition that halflings, while all created equal, are incapable of self-rule. Now, Bramblebury's descendant Honeyhill appears to be engaged in a great power struggle, testing whether that system, or any system based on the rule of one over many, can long endure.

 

I am not ignorant of the reasons the halflings have reverted to a Thainship. I have dedicated my life to studying the history of the Halfling Republic, and I understand well the reasons for its failure. Though the proposals I am about to lay out, if agreed upon by the people of Honeyhill, will restore a Halfling Republic; it will restore one that looks very different from the one created by Greta Goodbarrel. I greatly admire the woman, but I have studied her project long enough to see where it went wrong. Though I agree with her higher ideals of personal liberty for all halflings, I also recognize that most of you do not consider those ideals a necessity for government. Those of you who remember me will likely recall my exodus from the village being the result of my disagreement with properness laws. Let us set that debate aside - what I am saying here has nothing to do with properness, or secularism, or any of the apparently wildly unpopular Goodbarrelian values.

 

The proposals I will offer in this pamphlet rest on two simple ideas that we should all agree on. That all halflings are born equal, and that a halfling government should be small and subject to the will of the people. The failure of the Goodbarrelian constitutions was not the result of democracy not working but of the government being needlessly large and the original constitution being enacted against the will of the majority. Regarding the first problem; I understand where Greta was coming from; she didn't want any member of the government to turn into a dictator; but checks and balances from within the government for so small a village muddle things needlessly. We do not need both a Mayor and a Thain, and we certainly do not need a poorly defined triumvirate of Elders - under the government I am about to propose, the check on the leader's power will be the people.

 

Without further ado, I make the following proposals for the reorganization of Honeyhill's government:

 

I.  Abolish the Thainship

As the preamble implied, the thing that prompted me to write this pamphlet was the struggle for the Thainship between Mimosa Applefoot and Lily Peregrin. To some extent, I agree with Mimosa - the Peregrin family has indeed attempted to turn the Thainship into a monarchy, and this - if nothing else, should be proof that the Thainship is simply not a good form of government. We must recognize that, given our tendency to be deeply devoted to our families, not one of us can truly be trusted to appoint a successor for ourselves with impartial judgement. Nepotism, as has occured with the Peregrin "dynasty", is inevitable as long as only one person has a say in who becomes the next Thain. It is time for the shovel to either be returned to Knox or laid to rest in the village museum. 

 

II.  Elect a Mayor Every Eight Years

As I implied in the first proposal, the only fair way to choose our leader is through a popular election, a vote open to all adult halflings in the village. The ballot should be public, so that the votes are visible for all to see and the winner is plainly obvious once the polls close. Each voter should get one vote. Since it is unlikely that only two candidates will run in an election, if no candidate wins over 50% of the vote a second round should be held between the two candidates with the most votes. It is extremely important that whoever loses an election is willing to accept the results. It is for that reason that I suggest the terms of a Mayor be eight years - if an election is lost, there's always next time.  I understand that elections could easily give way to factionalism, but as long as differences end at the ballot box we should not worry too much about that. It did not become a serious issue during the Goodbarrelian republic until we had three Elders of vaguely equal power. That will not be the frame of this new republic.

 

III.  Let the Mayor Govern

Though the Mayor should be called a Mayor to signify that they answer to the people and are not dictators, their powers and duties during their term of office would be, in effect, the same as that of a Thain. They would handle all duties of governing the village, and be allowed to appoint Elders to aid them in those duties serve as their advisors, delegating whatever tasks to them they see fit. Should the Mayor be indisposed, an Elder designated earlier by the former Mayor for that purpose should assume their duties, and may act as Mayor until a new one is elected should the office become vacant.

 

IV.  Keep the Sherrif

The Sherrif's department should continue to exist as it has traditionally, with the Sherrif being elected by the people to keep order in the village; serving until their death, retirement, or removal. The Sherrif should be allowed to appoint for themself a Deputy to assist them just as the Elders would assist the Mayor, and assume their duties should the Sherrif be indisposed.

 

V.  Give Power to the People

The Mayor and Sherrif alike, along with their Elders and Deputy respectively, should recognize that they govern by the will of the village's residents. Major decisions ought to be discussed by all the village's people at a village Moot, which may be organized by both the leadership and informally by ordinary residents. Should a number of residents equalling two thirds of the voters in the previous election demand a leader step down, that leader should do so, and if they do not it is the right of the people to ignore them and elect a replacement anyway. In order for this new form of government to survive, it must be flexible. The village is small enough that we may trust no abuse will go unnoticed by the people. 
 

VI.  Write a Constitution

Though such a document should not be too rigid, and should be worded in a way that everyone can understand, it is important that the basic rules of this form of government are clearly written down somewhere. Though would personally like to see it, this Constitution does not need to have a bill of rights protecting impropers, or for that matter anything controversial that the village wouldn't be able to generally agree on. The new Constitution should not require the approval of a Thain for ratification, nor should a Thain's approval be sufficient for that purpose. We will not repeat the mistakes of 1796; a new form of government cannot be implemented unless a significant majority (2/3rds perhaps) of the village's residents wish to see it implemented, in which case a Thain would be in effect powerless to resist it. 

It has been nearly a century since our people's previous experiment with democracy. We are an entirely new generation, and we have a well documented record of the mistakes of the past that will teach us not to repeat them. I know many who read this may have considered establishing a Halfling Republic in any form to have been one of those mistakes, but I hope the arguments I have made here have helped those people reconsider. I do not expect my testimony to be worth much; I am returning after a very long absence, to the point where most who reside here now probably have no idea who I am. But frankly that is unimportant; this is not about me. I have made these proposals for the benefit of the village, and the village can either take them or leave them. For my part, I will stick around, defend my ideas to any who wish to debate them, and see how this little game of shovels Mimosa and Lily are playing turns out. My hope is that we will all realize there's a better way to solve this. 

 

[Britannicvs 2508]

"A constiution! Wot are we bigguns!?" Hal Applefoot huffed.