4.4. Citizenship
Ideas
- The Citizen is ruler, servant, and ruled.
- Citizenship is a fundamental right, but it is not automatic: it must be acquired by demonstrating sufficient understanding of Software Democracy.
- Citizens delegate most of their power to representative institutions; but they can always challenge the decisions of their representatives.
Acquisition of citizenship
Nationality
The first condition to become a citizen is to have the nationality of a country. This is established by possessing a digital identity card, that is, a certificate issued by the state. By nature, unfalsifiable, this digital identity card serves as an identifier for obtaining tokens to participate in voting.
Citizenship, like nationality, remains optional. Individuals are free to request or not the digital identity card that confers nationality. Once nationality is obtained, they are free to become citizens or not.
Competence
The key to the success of Software Democracy is education!
The second condition for becoming a citizen is therefore to have a sufficient level of understanding of institutions and the functioning of Software Democracy. The goal is to involve the maximum possible portion of the population without including unqualified or uninterested individuals. The proportion of the population that has acquired citizen status will be an interesting indicator of a country's political maturity!
A core training curriculum followed by a knowledge control validates the basic skills of citizens in the following areas:
- The main political systems, their history, their advantages, and disadvantages.
- The values of Software Democracy.
- The Universal Constitution and the National Constitution.
- The functioning of institutions.
- The functioning of the economy.
Age
Citizenship training is freely and freely accessible to everyone at any age. It is taught in primary schools at adapted complexity levels, then comprehensively at the middle school level. The questionnaire validating the curriculum, and therefore citizenship, is administered from the age of 14 and renewed annually until the age of majority: the aim is for every child leaving the school system to be a citizen perfectly familiar with the test.
Every citizen must revalidate their competence control every five years, then every two years starting from age 60. This ensures that elderly people who are no longer able to participate in political life can no longer exert influence.
Special cases
Some situations affect access to citizenship.
- Those convicted by the justice system, once all appeals have been exhausted, lose their citizen capacity for the duration of their sentence.
- Each country can freely establish the right to citizenship for foreign residents.
Access to global citizenship
All citizens of a country automatically gain citizenship at the global level and can thus participate in international voting.
Risks and Limitations
Linking citizenship to a test allows power to be entrusted to a qualified and interested group. However, there are limits to this system.
Access to Education
Subjecting citizenship to a validation of skills could exclude people with limited access to education, exacerbating social inequalities.
To limit this risk, it is essential to guarantee everyone access to a sufficient level of education to pass the test successfully, at any age and in all circumstances.
This is consistent with the objectives of Software Democracy, which considers education as a top priority.
Test Difficulty
Following the previous point, there is a risk that the test level is too high and/or presented in a way that favors certain profiles of people.
The test must be accessible: multiple-choice format, questions adapted to the level of a 14-year-old adolescent, simple language.
The goal is not to have an elite citizenry but simply to ensure that citizens are capable of understanding the questions that will be asked during the voting process.
A Two-Speed Society?
The test could create a two-speed society, with citizens involved in public life and a majority of people who simply accept living in it.
If the risk is real, what is the true nature of this risk? Insofar as the underlying objectives of the Software Democracy are achieved and allow everyone to live decently and access a minimum level of education, it does not seem illogical to ask in return for a minimum of interest and involvement from people who want to participate in government.
Do we allow drivers to drive without a license?
In any case, it will ultimately be the citizens who decide on the conditions for accessing citizenship!