Guide to governance

Project Elära is intended to foster a free and open community, governed by democratic ideals. As part of this, Project Elära has a Covenant, which can be read in full on the next chapter. The Covenant is like a mini-constitution, and details the foundational principles and organization of the community’s governance. Here is a condensed explanation of the Covenant.

First, the Covenant protects the human rights of the entire community. The entire first section is devoted to outlining these rights, and how they will be realized. Ideally, the community would be completely decentralized, but to assist in coordinating such a complex project, some centralization is inevitably necessary. So the Covenant also describes the Varyë Elära, or Varyë for short, the community government of Project Elära.

The Varyë has two main branches, the legislature and executive. The legislature creates laws, and the executive implements laws. The legislature and executive are both democratically elected, though in different ways.

The voting process guarantees universal suffrage in the community, and voters are allowed to choose multiple, none, or one candidate. In the legislature, candidates must attain an absolute majority (greater than 50% of votes) to be elected. For the executive, however, a single candidate is chosen by 12 randomly-chosen members of the community on the basis of extraordinary bravery, integrity, and selflessness.

The legislature is the Elära Senate, and can make, pass, and amend any law. The executive is headed by the Steward of Project Elära, who implements the laws passed by the Senate. Both have mechanisms to ensure their accountability to both the members of the community and the Covenant itself.

The entire system of government is constructed such as to make abuses of power as unlikely as possible, and to ensure that the project remains free, independent, and democratic long into the future.