A constitution for Mars?

And what it means for politics on Earth

I was very taken with an assignment recently set by a Yale political science professor for her students and the results it elicited.

Hélène Landemore asked students to write a constitution for Mars. They promptly sketched out an egalitarian framework for participative and listening politics.

The Martian system imagined by those young learners suggested “mini-publics”, which were really citizens’ assemblies made up of 250 randomly selected citizens. They would legislate on economic, social and environmental policy, civil rights, government oversight and interstellar relations. One-fifth of each of those bodies would participate in the deliberations of a central legislative body that would examine the government’s budget and pass laws or veto them.

One of the more interesting conclusions to be drawn from the students’ plan for a Martian political system was that Earth-bound electoral democracy is just not paying off. Professor Landemore has been quoted to say that traditional electoral pol…