Vision 2100

Vision 2100 features a collection of radical concepts of how Earth could transform over the coming nine decades that could potentially become reality if only people started acting intelligently and for the interests of all society. It is a vision of what the world could potentially become by 2100, in the sense of what is scientifically possible, not what is sociopolitically likely. Vision 2010 is a best-case scenario, so in a sense it is very idealistic, and at the same time coldly rational.

Overview
All of humanity is united in a single world-spanning organization called Society. Population has reached 15 billion.

Parts of government: Society has one government, comprised of a Legislature, a judicial system, and an administrative system.

Legislature
Voting: The Legislature is an assembly of Representatives elected in a democratic manner from the peoples of the entire world. Everyone has access to the internet, through which voting takes place, and a foolproof method of balloting has been installed on the government's website for voting on these Representatives to take place. Voting occurs twice a year in two windows:


 * 1) June 1 - 15
 * 2) December 1 - 15

During the voting windows everyone who is a citizen (those who have passed Society's educational system) can vote on one candidate. A person only has a +1 for a vote (so no negative votes, no partial votes, etc).

Running: For the week before the voting windows open up, any citizen can also put his/her name on the ballot (run to be a Representative), though only people who have done a lot of prior campaigning or who are very popular/famous actually bother to do so.

Threshold: Also decided prior to the voting window is the threshold, the number of votes a candidate needs to become a Representative. This number is typically around 20,000,000.

Winning: Whenever a candidate receives the threshold number of votes, he/she has 'threshold' and is removed from the ballot and becomes a Representative. Typically the popular candidates receive all the votes they need within the first few days of the voting window since they get votes the earliest. Later voters put votes in other candidates that represent similar political platforms. Usually a candidate that has threshold will post a list of candidates that he/she would support, to get those who would vote for him, to vote for those other candidates. In the last few days voting organizations, usually aligned along interest groups or political platforms, would tell their members who they should vote for to ensure that the maximum number of like-minded Representatives is elected to office.

Terms: A Representative's term is three years and is staggered. It lasts for the next six cycles (a cycle is half a year and so a term in office is three years). The cycles are:


 * 1) January 1 through June 30
 * 2) July 1 through December 31

For example, a candidate that hits threshold on June 14, 2100 serves as a Representative for July 1, 2100 through June 30, 2103.

Number of Representatives: As a result the number of people comprising the Legislature is variable, depending on the number of people who end up getting elected each voting cycle. Also as a result, the number varies by very little from cycle to cycle. The typical number of Representatives in Legislature is 3000, and the typical number of Representatives elected each cycle is 500, since a good percentage of people don't vote.

Representatives' Team: Representatives may hire a team of 4-6 people to work with them (or more, but the salaries for this many are covered by the government). They are usually to help with campaigning, public relations, updating on political events, providing overviews of bills, and drafting up bills.

General Legislature: The term General Legislature refers to all the Representatives, who convene once a week to vote on matters that affect all of Society. As a safety precaution, this meeting is conducted online through the government website, protected from hackers and open to a great number of media peoples. Representatives often call in directly from their offices. There are no particular leaders or chairmen that guide discussion. Instead, those Representatives that had threshold earliest - those that are most popular - are most respected and they are de facto given the role of speaking first and presenting the opinions of the groups of Representatives that they represent. Therefore, there are in a sense a variety of prominent speakers depending on the issue under discussion. After their speech, other members may speak, though most of the time is given to a panel of Representatives and other people who are the most well-versed in the matter at hand.

Special Legislature: The term Special Legislature refers to subcommittees of the Representatives that focus on smaller matters. Certain special legislatures focus on monetary policies, others on transportation and communication, still others on matters at the municipal level, and so on. Usually, at the beginning of a cycle the General Legislature assigns responsibilities for each Representative, essentially assigning them various Special Legislatures; this usually works in a way similar to the general election of Representatives by the citizens, ie. each candidate for a particular Special Legislature has a threshold target to reach. A Representative typically attends a meeting with one special legislature each day, once a week, and meet with 4-6 special legislatures. These meetings are usually held in person to facilitate more in-depth discussion, and also recorded and presented on the government website, though usually attract far less attention from the public. All of a special legislature's powers come from the general legislature, which can create, modify, reassign members of, and dissolve special legislatures at any time.

Bills: Proposals can be submitted by any citizen to a Representative, and if that Representative likes it his/her team polishes it into a bill, and he/she then presents it at the relevant Legislature meeting. Representatives can of course present their own bills. Bills are then voted on a week later, giving Representatives time to look at it. All bills are worded as changing something, so that voting 'no' on one reaffirms the status quo.

Voting on bills: There are no filibuster or other procedural options. Bills are decided based on majority but require at least 60% (of the total Legislature for general meetings and of the relevant Representatives for special meetings) to pass, so if a bill gets passed into law, it's not too easily undone. The standard procedure on a bill is to discuss for 30 minutes, limited to a maximum of 2 minutes per Representative speaking on the matter, and then vote - quickly. The voting takes mere seconds and anyone who doesn't vote within that window is considered to be voting 'no'. Therefore conservatives (those in favor of keeping the status quo) often don't show up at these meetings at all.

Watchdog Group: The Watchdog Group is a group of Representatives elected on a platform of 'no bullshit', in other words, these people vote down bills that are focused too much on special interests, vote down long-winded and complicated bills, and vote down bills with too many things wrapped together, as a matter of course, regardless of whether they agree with the content. In this way pork-barrel spending and tedious negotiation and compromise, rendered ineffectual, is kept to a minimum. These people are also elected to their position not for their political stances, so should they no longer keep this role, they will no longer be elected.

Time-limiting provision: De facto, almost all bills are written to last for shorter than five years. This prevents the lawbooks from getting unduly complicated, since only the five most recent years' worth of bills apply. Of course, bills can be crafted to have exceptions if they're seen as important and unequivocal.

Administrative system
Teams: The administrative system is a collection of teams that are under the oversight of relevant special legislatures and are in charge of actually getting the job done. Their decisions can be overridden by the special legislature at any time; they exist solely to facilitate the desires of the special legislature.

Workers: Usually each team is comprised of various government workers that specialize in whatever it is they do, of which one member reports to the special legislature. Special legislatures usually oversee many teams at a time. The people working in this role are usually mundane nobodies, with no decision-making powers, no oversight, repetitive work, and average pay, and are considered government grunts.

Workers of the administrative system form the largest portion of government employees.

Judicial system
The judicial system is in charge of simply getting the cases brought before them resolved, and not for clarification of the law.

Structure: The structure of the judicial system is as follows:


 * 1) 100 Tier 4 courts
 * 2,000 Tier 3 courts
 * 40,000 Tier 2 courts
 * 800,000 Tier 1 courts

Courts are not arranged by specialty or territorial jurisdiction. Instead, in determining which court to go to, the two sides first find a place which both will agree to go to (in which the judge's or region's preferences and geographical distance play a role).

Before the trial: The process starts when the prosecutor files a complaint to the legal system. Within a few days the defendant will be notified, at which point both sides choose the locations where they would like to attend court. The electronic system will decide a location where both are satisfied, and the case will go to court in a few days. Before the trial begins, both sides are required to disclose certain vital information to each other; they also contact their witnesses and attorneys (if any). At any time during the process, the two sides can settle the case, in which case the case would end early.

Trial Procedure: If a settlement cannot be reached, then the trial begins. It is a singular session (which may be recorded by media but could be restrained from immediate release for broadcasting) where the prosecution states its case, followed by the defense. There is no explicit "which do you plead" rite, no "pleading the fifth" as in the US court system; instead, the defendant is presumed to plead not guilty (unless he/she confesses), the prosecution is not allowed to make compromises if the defendant confesses, and both sides do their best to defend their positions. At any time while one side is making its case, that side can call in witnesses or ask questions to any witnesses. The two sides take turns stating arguments and countering the other side's arguments, never repeating an argument unless it's to briefly state that it is a counterargument to another claim. Soon both sides will run out of arguments, after which the judges will convene in their office and reach a verdict based on a simple majority. As a result of this system, situations are resolved very quickly.

Trial Judging: Three judges preside over a case. All cases enter at the Tier 1 level. A decision is reached if two judges of the three can agree, though they may have to compromise on the defendant's level of guilt and punishment.

Appeals: Cases can be appealed if any one of the three judges want to. This happens if the case is a borderline case requiring further review, or if the judges simply can't reach a decision. Cases go up one tier each time they are appealed. Tier 4 courts can appeal for the Legislature to review. Usually however, the judges of Tier 4 courts see so many borderline cases that they are good at drawing the line.

Guiltiness: In determining a defendant's guilt, judges do not simply vote 'innocent' or 'guilty', since cases are not seen as black and white, unless the defendant confesses or either side commits a terrible blunder in the presentation of their case ('makes a slip'). Usually two of the three judges arrive at a guiltiness percentage, typically 0% to 100%, though negative percentages and percentages greater than 100% are allowed as well depending on the circumstances. Punishments are then scaled according to the guiltiness percentage times a standard punishment. In other words, the 'standard punishment' is only exacted if the defendant is charged with 100% guilt, a rare situation.

Case load: Court cases generally go significantly faster in Asiata due to simpler, more straight-forward legal systems; a court is able to go through 10 cases on an average day. The average Asiatic person instigates a court case every 5 years.

Judge selection: Judges are chosen by special legislatures from the pool of applicants who have passed the state's Judicial Filter (the equivalent of the bar exam). They are chosen to serve for a year-long term at a time, and can also be fired and replaced by a special legislature. Usually new judges are hired to work at Tier 1 courts, and only judges that have served at all the lower tiers can be promoted to a court of a higher tier, since they need to have more experience with the borderline cases.

Legislative clarification: The role of clarifying the law is usually undertaken by special legislatures. The special legislature may choose which cases it wants to review, and may accept and turn down petitions for appeal by Tier 4 courts. The determination by the special legislature is not final and may be supplanted by the ruling of a later special legislature, and by the general legislature, and so on.

Sanctions:


 * Witnesses can be convicted of lying (perjury).
 * Both sides can be found guilty of contempt of the court.
 * Prosecutors are just as in danger as defendants are of being assessed fines. This may occur if, for example, the court finds the prosecutor guilty of the crime which they have accused the defense, or of a different (though generally related) crime which they are responsible for, if the prosecution knowingly lies, aka. commits perjury (no one is permitted to lie knowingly).
 * Defendants may also counter-sue in the same trial or at a later date.

Retrials: There is no law expressly forbidding double jeopardy, though by default judges won't allow the same prosecutor to gain double from the same defendant simply by going to trial multiple times. Defendants who have already gone through a case for a crime can be brought to trial for a second round for the same crime; this is important if new evidence appears which hadn't been revealed beforehand. If the defendant is convicted both times, the later verdict replaces the former instead of being appended to it. This also works the other way around; if new evidence disproves a convicted defendant's guilt, it is admissible in a second round, the verdict of which would replace previous ones. There can then be third, fourth, etc. rounds provided there is at least one trio of judges willing to review the case. There is no statute of limitations, though of course evidence gets increasingly blurry so convictions become increasingly unlikely with time.

Trivial trial provision: Prosecutors are almost always guilty of "bringing a case to court", which is a very, very light sentence meant to pay for court expenses. Mental problems are never a direct defense for a case.