The American Experiment (Riot Quest)

The arguments in favor of all residents voting won the day, giving franchise to those temporarily or even permanently non-citizens. The potential for making the citizenship process easier was considered, but leaving this to Congress was deemed insufficient. And besides, there were groups such as American Indians who may prefer not to have citizenship, but should still have the right to vote.

There was a very limited disenfranchisement written in: an enemy polity's officers and elected officials would be permanently disenfranchised and barred from holding office. This was likely only to apply to the Northern and Southern rival governments, preventing those influential people from becoming part of the new government.

While there was some support for yearly elections, it was decided that would be too disruptive, and instead they would be every other year. In order to ensure turnover and prevent ossification of influential political figures, these would have 18 year term limits, with no more than 6 years consecutively.

Snap elections were a common feature of parliamentary democracies, thus far absent from America. The Constituent Assembly decided to adopt them but only when Congress decided to with a majority vote. This would hopefully allow a dysfunctional Congress to dissolve itself, though the risk of it being so dysfunctional it couldn't even do that could only be solved with large recall campaigns.

As for the size of electoral districts, they mandated them to be large to ensure even representation. This meant 6-12 representatives elected for every district. It also meant even a smaller minor party could get some amount of representation.


A topic considered long overdue, the Constituent Assembly has begun arguing on what name the new nation should have. There have been numerous proposals, with various implications within. Including "People's Republic", as Hawaii did, symbolizes their fundamental different nature to the old bourgeoisie republics. Including "in America" or "of America" is a dichotomy of a simple statement of location of it being a republic for that location—a somewhat meaningless distinction in many people's opinion. They could also decide not to include a geographic descriptor at all, as many supported the idea of a singular world republic, of which this could be the start.


A capital was also needed. Washington D.C. was an old symbol and rebuilt without government bureaucracy, making little reason for it. Chicago was currently used as the provisional capital, making it an obvious choice. But not the only one. New York was the largest and most diverse city, leading to arguments that it was the most representative. And as the first capital of America, the constitutionalists considered it a compromise choice. The technocrats also came up with a proposal to build a new city. While an expensive undertaking, starting from scratch can have benefits from not having to work around what already exists or displacing people.


Additionally, outside the assembly there have been proposals to rename some cities. The Provisional Congress did have the power to rename cities, and was deliberating at the same time. Washington D.C., the old capital, was an obvious one, as losing its status as a district outside the states made the current name not make as much sense. Currently the most popular proposal was to rename it to the Colombian Commune.

It was hardly the only city that could be renamed. Many cities were named after old European cities and/or old reactionaries, such as St. Louis ultimately deriving from King Louis of France. Thus, there were proposals for renaming other cities as well.


[][nation] People's Republic in America
[][nation] United Communes of America
[][nation] The People's Republic
[][nation] Write-in


[][capital] Washington D.C.

The old capital, it symbolizes the new country's status as a successor state. However, the old government buildings were destroyed and have not been rebuilt.

Constitutionalist +1, Revolutionary Socialist -1

X0.72 voting multiplier

[][capital] Chicago

The provisional capital with existing infrastructure and a transportation hub. It has existing government buildings but they must be expanded to fit the larger Congress and more government infrastructure.

Voightist +1, constitutionalist -1

X1.01 voting modifier

[][capital] New York

The largest and most diverse city.

Anarcho-collectivist +1

X1.14 voting modifier

[][capital] Metropolis, IL

A proposal from the 1850s brought up once more, suggesting building an entirely new capital on rational grounds. A central location near the western hinterlands, St. Louis, and between the Chicago railway hub and New Orleans river/ocean transportation hub, it is in an ideal location, and it currently being small just makes it easier to build from scratch. However, it would necessitate building from scratch when there's other things to focus on and does not have an existing labor pool right there to do so.

Technocrats +2, constitutionalists -1

X0.83 voting multiplier


Note: Renaming cities is not under the Constituent Assembly's purview, I have put it here because it fits with the other options here. This vote IC is done by the Provisional Congress.

[][name] Rename Washington D.C. to Colombian Commune.
[][name] Rename Washington D.C. to name.

[][name] Rename city to name.

[][name] Do not rename cities.



Any city with more votes for renaming it than there are votes against renaming cities will be renamed.





Vote by line, not plan, representing the difficulties of getting a >2500 group to discuss agree on something. The vote will run until a clear majority, and then I will start the normal supporters gather vote.

You may suggest a write-in for an option and I'll assign a voting modifier for it.