There are two basic propositions in political theory. That:
(1) individuals get their “rights” from the State, which may amend, retract or deny them as it chooses – the ancient “divine” right of Kings to rule, and communist, totalitarian or dictatorship models all reflect this perspective, but perhaps surprisingly it also resides in the “supremacy of Parliament” clause of our Charter of Rights; and the Supreme Court of Canada has often affirmed the supremacy of the State over the individual;
or
(2) that the State obtains its powers from individuals, and is a custodian of their surrendered “rights” – this latter was the view of the American founding fathers and what made their revolution so unique in history; they confronted the notion of the absolute Power of the King, and not only threw it off their shoulders, but declined to substitute it with merely a similar shirt of a different colour.
The Capitalist government would, I suggest, follow the models created at the time of the French and American Revolutions, the era of “Classical Liberalism”, born out of the evolution of England’s constitutional monarchy.
Because Politics is more than just Economics
1. All citizens are political equals, fundamentally entitled to indiscriminate application of the law.[i]
2. No citizen may be denied their liberty of action or thought, or the benefit of the peaceful fruits of their liberty, except in accordance with the indiscriminate application of the law.[ii]
3. The law exists only to ensure that the citizen is at liberty to explore his or her existence in whatever fashion seems best to the citizen, in peace, respecting that this principle holds true for all other citizens. Any law which violates the liberty of a citizen, is illegal except to the extent that it maintains the peace.[iii]
4. The legislature shall hold periodic and free elections, in which each citizen is entitled to one vote, and in which each citizen is entitled to submit their candidacy for office.[iv]
5. There shall be a judiciary independent of the legislative and executive powers of the law, comprised of citizens sworn to uphold this Constitution and the interests of Justice.[v]
6. No person shall be accused, arrested, or imprisoned except in the cases and according to the forms prescribed by law. Every citizen is entitled to the ancient right to trial by jury, and shall be presumed innocent unless found guilty by indiscriminate application of the law.[vi]
7. The law shall not deny a citizen’s right to speak or communicate his ideas and opinions, to assemble with and associate with whomsoever he or she chooses, to believe in whatsoever he or she wishes, nor to accumulate property, provided the exercise of these rights do not violate the liberty of others.[vii]
8. The law shall be answerable for the conduct of the military, and the forces of the police, which shall themselves be answerable to the law. Though public service in maintaining the law shall be a post of honour, the principles of liberty dictate that the law shall compel no citizen to serve against his or her will.[viii]
9. The principles of democracy are subject to the fundamental law of the Constitution.[ix]
[i]
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”
- Martin Luther King, 1963
"Article 1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.
- France’s Declaration of Man and of the Citizen, 1789
“Section 1. That all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety”.
- Virginia’s Declaration of Rights, 1776
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness”.
- American Declaration of Independence, 1776
Article 2. The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.”
- France’s Declaration of Man and of the Citizen, 1789
“a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government”
- Thomas Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address, 1801
[iii]
“Article 4. Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights. These limits can only be determined by law.
Article 5. Law can only prohibit such actions as are hurtful to society. Nothing may be prevented which is not forbidden by law, and no one may be forced to do anything not provided for by law.”
- France’s Declaration of Man and of the Citizen, 1789
“Article 39. No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land.”
- England’s Magna Carta, 1215
“That election of members of Parliament ought to be free;…for redress of all grievances, and for the amending, strengthening and preserving of the laws, parliaments ought to be held frequently”
England’s Bill of Rights, 1689
“Article 6. Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has a right to participate personally, or through his representative, in its foundation. It must be the same for all, whether it protects or punishes. All citizens, being equal in the eyes of the law, are equally eligible to all dignities and to all public positions and occupations, according to their abilities, and without distinction except that of their virtues and talents.”
- France’s Declaration of Man and of the Citizen, 1789
“Section 6. That elections of members to serve as representatives of the people, in assembly ought to be free; and that all men, having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with, and attachment to, the community, have the right of suffrage and cannot be taxed or deprived of their property for public uses without their own consent or that of their representatives so elected, nor bound by any law to which they have not, in like manner, assembled for the public good.”
- Virginia’s Declaration of Rights, 1776
“Section 2. That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; that magistrates are their trustees and servants and at all times amenable to them”.
Section 5. That the legislative and executive powers of the state should be separate and distinct from the judiciary…
- Virginia’s Declaration of Rights, 1776
Article 45. We will appoint as justices, constables, sheriffs, or other officials, only men that know the law of the realm and are minded to keep it well.”
- England’s Magna Carta, 1215
“Article 40. To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.
- England’s Magna Carta, 1215
“That the pretended power of suspending of laws, or the execution of laws, by regal authority, without consent of Parliament, is illegal.
That the pretended power of dispensing with laws, or the executions of laws, by Regal authority, as it hath been assumed and exercised of late, is illegal.
That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed; nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”
England’s Bill of Rights, 1689
Section 8. That in all capital or criminal prosecutions a man has a right to demand the cause and nature of his accusation, to be confronted with the accusers and witnesses, to call for evidence in his favor, and to a speedy trial by an impartial jury of twelve men of his vicinage, without whose unanimous consent he cannot be found guilty; nor can he be compelled to give evidence against himself; that no man be deprived of his liberty except by the law of the land or the judgment of his peers.
Section 9. That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Section 10. That general warrants, whereby an officer or messenger may be commanded to search suspected places without evidence of a fact committed, or to seize any person or persons not named, or whose offense is not particularly described and supported by evidence, are grievous and oppressive and ought not to be granted.
Section 11. That in controversies respecting property, and in suits between man and man, the ancient trial by jury is preferable to any other and ought to be held sacred.”
- Virginia’s Declaration of Rights, 1776
“Article 7. No person shall be accused, arrested, or imprisoned except in the cases and according to the forms prescribed by law. Any one soliciting, transmitting, executing, or causing to be executed, any arbitrary order, shall be punished. But any citizen summoned or arrested in virtue of the law shall submit without delay, as resistance constitutes an offense.
Article 8. The law shall provide for such punishments only as are strictly and obviously necessary, and no one shall suffer punishment except it be legally inflicted in virtue of a law passed and promulgated before the commission of the offence.
Article 9. As all persons are held innocent until they shall have been declared guilty, if arrest shall be deemed indispensable, all harshness not essential to the securing of the prisoner's person shall be severely repressed by law.”
- France’s Declaration of Man and of the Citizen, 1789
“the jury has the power to bring a verdict in the teeth of both law and fact”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, US Supreme Court Justice, 1902
“the jury has a right to judge both the law as well as the fact in controversy”
John Jay, 1st Chief Justice, US Supreme Court, 1789
“The trial by jury is the only institution that gives the weaker party any veto upon the power of the stronger. Consequently it is the only institution that gives them any effective voice in the government, or any guarantee against oppression”
Lysander Spooner, Essay on Trial by Jury
Bushel’s Case (1670), 124 ER 1006, which determined that it was illegal for a Judge to coerce a jury into making a specific verdict.
“Article 10. No one shall be disquieted on account of his opinions, including his religious views, provided their manifestation does not disturb the public order established by law.
Article 11. The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law.
Article 17. Since property is an inviolable and sacred right, no one shall be deprived thereof except where public necessity, legally determined, shall clearly demand it, and then only on condition that the owner shall have been previously and equitably indemnified.”
- France’s Declaration of Man and of the Citizen, 1789
“Section 16. …all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience… ”
- Virginia’s Declaration of Rights, 1776
“Article 12. The security of the rights of man and of the citizen requires public military forces. These forces are, therefore, established for the good of all and not for the personal advantage of those to whom they shall be entrusted.
“Article 13. A common contribution is essential for the maintenance of the public forces and for the cost of administration. This should be equitably distributed among all the citizens in proportion to their means.”
- France’s Declaration of Man and of the Citizen, 1789
“Section 13. That a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power”
- Virginia’s Declaration of Rights, 1776
“Article 16. A society in which the observance of the law is not assured, nor the separation of powers defined, has no constitution at all.”
- France’s Declaration of Man and of the Citizen, 1789
“Section 15. That no free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.”
- Virginia’s Declaration of Rights, 1776