A Biocratic Constitution

A Living Template for Self-Producing, Self-Organising, and Self-Correcting Governance

Preface: A Living Draft

This constitution is not a finished design but a flexible framework for experimentation.
It offers the minimum effective dose of institutional architecture required to express the principles of Biocracy.
Every clause is provisional, open to revision through feedback and public learning.
Each society that adopts or adapts it will modify its details to suit its own culture, scale, and ecological circumstances.

A constitution in a living age must be adaptable — capable of self-review, self-repair, and self-renewal.
This document should therefore be seen as an invitation, not an instruction.

Preamble

We, the people and communities of this territory, recognising our interdependence with ecosystems and future generations, constitute a living polity that sustains itself through regeneration, cooperation, and continuous learning.

We commit to governance that regenerates life-support systems, coheres diverse identities, and learns continuously from error.
Our purpose is to build a society whose vitality endures by renewing ecological integrity, social cohesion, and adaptive intelligence.

Article 1 — First Principles

Triadic Architecture

  • Self-Production (SP): The State shall generate conditions for ongoing renewal — of energy, ecosystems, creativity, and institutions — securing abundance without depletion.

  • Self-Organisation (SO): The State shall enable plural, nested forms of organisation with equitable participation.

  • Self-Correction (SC): The State shall embed feedback, transparency, and revisability in all public power.

Biotropy as Aim

The measure of success is viability over time — the capacity to renew ecological integrity, social trust, and learning.
Biotropy indicators shall be reviewed annually through public dashboards, allowing the Constitution itself to evolve with evidence.

Subsidiarity (Fractal Federalism)

Authority shall reside at the lowest competent level; upper layers coordinate only where scale or spillovers require.
This structure may be re-tuned through feedback and citizen deliberation.

Article 2 — Rights & Duties of Human and Other Life

Human Rights

Dignity, equality, due process, association, speech, privacy, and participation are fundamental and inalienable.

Rights of Nature

Key ecosystems possess legal personality with enforceable rights to flow, regenerate, and be restored.
Environmental harm is recognised as injury to the common body of life.

Data & Algorithmic Rights

Citizens have rights to explainability, contestability, and independent audit of all high-impact automated systems.

Duties of Office

Public officials must disclose conflicts of interest, respond to citizen evidence, and revise policy upon credible feedback.

Intergenerational Equity

Each generation owes the next a fair share of ecological capacity and public assets.

Adaptive Clause

Rights listed herein shall expand, not contract, as knowledge and ethics deepen our understanding of life and intelligence.

Article 3 — Institutional Design: The Three Pillars

3.1 The Generative Council (SP)

Mandate: Regenerative production and long-horizon investment.
Remit: Climate and energy transitions, water and food systems, infrastructure, research, culture, and public health capacity.

Composition:

  • One-third selected through expert nomination from accredited fields (science, ecology, engineering, culture, health, and design).

  • One-third chosen by citizen sortition from a pool of volunteers who complete public training in systems and sustainability literacy.

  • One-third appointed by the Commons Assembly from among regional or community delegates, ensuring local perspectives and equity.

Members serve staggered, non-renewable terms of five to seven years to preserve continuity without capture. Leadership rotates annually.
All sessions are recorded and open; deliberations and data are public by default.

Instruments

  • A Triadic Budget envelope dedicated to long-term regeneration.

  • Mission Boards (e.g., decarbonisation, soil and water restoration, pandemic readiness) with multi-year charters.

  • Generative Impact Statements assessing net regeneration rather than mere mitigation.

Adaptability: Each mission is reviewed every five years against Biotropy metrics; failing programs are redesigned or retired.

3.2 The Commons Assembly (SO)

Mandate: Representation, coordination, and social cohesion.
Composition: Mixed electoral system combining proportional representation, local delegates, and seats reserved for Indigenous and minority communities.

Functions

  • Statute-making and policy deliberation.

  • Chartering of commons institutions — cooperatives, guilds, data trusts.

  • Setting standards for inclusion, language access, and participatory procedure.

Process Innovations

  • Deliberative mini-publics (citizens by sortition) attached to committees.

  • Continuous public input via verified digital platforms.

Adaptability: Procedures and digital tools are audited regularly for bias and accessibility; reforms follow public review.

3.3 The Correction & Foresight Chamber (SC)

Mandate: Error detection, oversight, horizon scanning.
Composition: Half randomly selected citizen panels; half appointed independent experts in science, ethics, law, ecology, and systems analysis.

Powers

  • Post-legislative review and red-team audits.

  • Policy recall or suspension pending evidence review.

  • Mandatory evaluations of major programs.

  • Maintenance of a public Foresight Docket on systemic risks and emerging technologies.

Triadic Balance:
No chamber may entrench power unilaterally. Bills of high systemic impact require concurrence of at least two chambers; the third may trigger enhanced review.
Balance is dynamic and revisable through feedback.

Article 4 — The Executive Secretariat

Structure and Role

The Executive Secretariat is a coordinating organ, not a hierarchy.
It translates the decisions of the three pillars — Regeneration, Cooperation, and Adaptive Learning — into coherent action. It manages logistics, crises, and cross-sector communication, ensuring information flows between citizens, chambers, and agencies.

Composition

  • Executive Council (9–15 members):

    • One-third nominated by each of the three chambers (Generative Council, Commons Assembly, and Correction & Foresight Chamber).

    • Appointments confirmed by joint public hearing and transparent vote.

    • Members serve fixed, staggered terms of four years, renewable once after a one-term break.

  • Citizen Liaisons (rotating panel):

    • A small, randomly selected citizen panel that shadows Executive deliberations, receives full briefings, and publishes quarterly Public Accountability Notes.

    • This keeps the Executive in continuous dialogue with the population it serves.

  • Professional Secretariat:

    • A lean civil service team recruited through meritocratic, transparent processes, responsible for implementation, logistics, and open-data management.

    • All staff subject to conflict-of-interest and revolving-door restrictions.

Leadership Model

  • No single head of state or prime minister.

    • Instead, a Triadic Coordination Council of three Co-Secretaries, one appointed from each chamber’s nominees.

    • They act jointly; any two can authorise urgent actions, but all three must sign long-term decisions.

    • Rotation of chairing duties every six months ensures no office becomes symbolic or centralised.

Selection Principles

  • Gender and cultural parity mandatory.

  • Expertise balanced with civic and ecological literacy.

  • Decisions taken by consensus where possible, or by transparent vote with full record of reasoning.

Accountability and Oversight

  • Executive actions logged automatically in the Public Ledger of Decisions, accessible online.

  • The Correction & Foresight Chamber may summon any Executive member for questioning or suspend authority pending review.

  • All emergency measures undergo automatic post-crisis audit.

  • Annual performance evaluation against Biotropy and Feedback Latency indicators.

Ethos

“The Executive serves as the bloodstream of Biocracy — circulating knowledge and coordination, not command. Its power lies in responsiveness, not control.”

Article 5 — Judiciary & Independent Oversight

  • Constitutional Court: guardian of rights and arbiter of triadic disputes.

  • Nature & Commons Courts: benches for ecosystem rights, commons governance, and intergenerational claims.

  • Algorithmic & Data Tribunal: oversight of high-risk AI and data abuses, ensuring explainability and redress.

  • Supreme Audit & Statistics Office: independent, open-method agencies guaranteeing data integrity.

  • Ombuds & Anti-Capture Commission: fast-track remedies for administrative abuse and regulatory capture.

Courts shall publish open reasoning and correction data to sustain learning integrity.

Article 6 — Triadic Budgeting & Review Cycle

Three Envelopes

  1. SP Fund: regenerative capital — ecosystems, resilience infrastructure, research, cultural memory.

  2. SO Fund: social infrastructure — education, care, inclusion, civic technology.

  3. SC Fund: monitoring, evaluation, audits, foresight.

Sunset / Sunrise Logic

  • Major programs lapse after five to seven years unless renewed by evidence-based review.

  • Pilot projects begin as sunrise experiments, scaling only with proof of success.

Participatory Budgeting: a designated portion of each municipal budget is allocated through citizens’ assemblies, with the results binding within their specified limits.

Counter-Cyclical Rule
Investment in regeneration increases during downturns; austerity may not weaken oversight or cohesion cores.

Scaling Clause
Triadic budgeting can start at the municipal or sectoral level before full national integration — the minimum effective dose for learning.

Article 7 — Feedback, Data Commons & Transparency

The State shall maintain open, verifiable channels through which citizens and institutions can observe, question, and improve public performance.

A National Feedback Platform shall publish ecological, social, and learning indicators in real time, enabling annotation and alternative analysis. All institutions contribute comparable data to ensure transparency and coherence.

Public Data Trusts, governed by citizen boards under fiduciary duty, safeguard privacy while providing tiered access for research and oversight. Data gathered with public funds remains a public good.

Every person holds a Right to Reasons: to know how significant administrative or algorithmic decisions were made and to appeal them to a human authority.

Each institution conducts an annual Feedback Latency Audit, measuring the time between citizen signal and policy response and setting targets for continuous reduction.

Transparency, privacy, and learning are indivisible; together they form the circulatory system of a living democracy.

Article 8 — Deliberation & Participation

Public deliberation is the lifeblood of cooperation. Governance shall ensure that citizens can take part directly and continuously in shaping collective decisions.

Standing Citizens’ Assemblies operate at local, regional, and national levels through rotating sortition. They may set agendas and co-decide on designated domains. Their proceedings are open, recorded, and guided by balanced evidence.

Crowd Proposals and e-Petitions reaching defined thresholds shall trigger hearings and formal responses from the relevant bodies.

Civic Education in systems literacy, evidence, and ecological awareness is integrated throughout schooling and adult learning so that participation is informed and effective.

All participatory bodies follow a Learning Clause: they record process improvements and publish them for public review.

Through participation that listens, learns, and evolves, democracy becomes biocratic—a conversation that never ends.

Article 9 — Crisis Operating Modes (Adaptive Centralisation)

Purpose

To enable rapid and ethical response to emergencies while preserving transparency, participation, and the return to normal governance once stability is restored.

Triggering and Validation

  1. A state of emergency may be declared by the Executive Secretariat, acting through at least two Co-Secretaries, on the basis of clear evidence of threat to life, ecology, or essential systems.

  2. The declaration must be validated within fourteen (14) days by the Correction and Foresight Chamber, reviewed for necessity and proportionality.

  3. The Commons Assembly may amend or revoke the declaration at any time by majority vote.

Scope and Duration

  1. Powers are precisely enumerated, time-limited to thirty (30) days, and renewable only with fresh evidence and dual-chamber approval.

  2. Core rights—life, dignity, due process, transparency—remain inviolable.

  3. All emergency actions are recorded on the public ledger and subject to continuous oversight.

Coordination and Oversight

  1. The Executive may activate Emergency Response Hubs for local, expert, and civic coordination under the Rapid Response Protocol.

  2. A temporary Crisis Council—including representatives of all three chambers and affected communities—advises on response strategy.

  3. Emergency powers are auto-sunsetting unless renewed; post-crisis, a Public Inquiry led by the Correction Chamber reviews performance and publishes lessons learned.

Restoration and Learning

  1. When Biotropy and safety indicators stabilise, authority reverts automatically to normal governance.

  2. All emergency regulations expire unless re-enacted through ordinary procedure.

  3. Findings from the Public Inquiry inform updates to future resilience protocols.

Ethos

“In crisis, power contracts to protect; in recovery, it expands to share.
The measure of resilience is how swiftly learning restores liberty.”

Article 10 — Constitutional Amendment (Learning Constitution)

This Constitution is a living framework designed to evolve through public reflection and experience. Amendments shall follow a process that protects stability while ensuring adaptability.

Any amendment requires the Two-Key Rule: approval by at least two of the three chambers, followed by citizen ratification through referendum or assembly. Proposals must be published with plain-language summaries and open to public comment before deliberation.

A Cooling-Off Interval of not less than ninety days separates proposal and final vote. During this period, an independent Red-Team Review tests assumptions, forecasts unintended consequences, and reports findings to all chambers and the public.

Structural innovations may be piloted in Constitutional Sandboxes—limited jurisdictions where new designs are trialled under sunset and reversion clauses. Results of such pilots inform any permanent amendment.

The Constitution shall undergo a participatory Decennial Review, inviting citizens, scholars, and institutions to assess its performance against Biotropy and feedback metrics. Revisions emerging from this process follow the same Two-Key and ratification procedures.

Through transparent amendment, experimental design, and regular self-examination, the Constitution preserves what works, corrects what fails, and remains aligned with the evolving intelligence of life.

Cross-Cutting Safeguards & Metrics

A. Anti-Capture & Integrity

  • Mandatory conflict disclosures and cooling-off periods for officials.

  • Open-source regulation wherever feasible; public comment required before enactment.

  • Laws and budgets published in machine-readable formats.

B. Biotropy Index (Public KPI Suite)

A stable basket of indicators, reported quarterly and reviewed each parliament:

  • Ecological Regeneration: biodiversity, soil and water health, emission trajectories.

  • Social Cohesion: trust, participation, inclusion, basic security.

  • Learning Rate: time from error detection to policy revision; share of budget under review.

  • Cultural Vitality: language continuity, knowledge commons, artistic output.

C. The Centralisation–Decentralisation “Clutch”

Guidance for contextual shifts:

  • Emergencies justify temporary centralisation;

  • Routine governance and innovation default to distribution.
    The Correction Chamber reviews balance annually.

Implementation Roadmap (Phased Introduction)

Phase 1 — SC Foundations
Establish independent audit and statistics offices, a Nature Court, citizen-assembly pilots, and feedback platforms.

Phase 2 — SO Upgrades
Reform electoral systems, enact subsidiarity laws, and expand participatory budgeting.

Phase 3 — SP Investments
Launch triadic budgeting with regenerative capital missions and mission boards.

Phase 4 — Constitutionalisation
Once practices stabilise, codify the full triadic structure through amendment or ratification.

Each phase is evaluative; scaling proceeds only when feedback confirms readiness.

Failure Modes and Resilience

  • Gridlock: limited concurrence required for routine bills; tri-chamber approval reserved for systemic impact.

  • Technocracy: sortition seats, participatory budgeting, and Right-to-Reasons maintain accountability to citizens.

  • Capture: open data, independent tribunals, and automatic sunset provisions act as release valves.

  • Growth Fetishism: SP fund constrained by law to regenerative metrics; expansion must yield restoration or resilience.

Postscript — Constitutional Humility

This Biocratic Constitution is a prototype: the first iteration of a living framework.
Its purpose is to be tested, criticised, and improved.
Its legitimacy will come not from permanence but from its responsiveness to life.

Each clause serves as a conversation starter; each institution, as a hypothesis.
If just one community uses it to govern more wisely, it will have achieved its aim.

The health of this Constitution will be measured not by its longevity, but by its ability to evolve.