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The Ideal Constitution | |
History
Within animal societies unwritten rules prevail.Thus we know the pecking order with chickens, the order with wolve packs, hyena's, lions, apes, enz.
This order is commonly determined by mere muscle power. Already with young animals the order is determined by romping.
Young animals often are reproved by elder animals with a blow or a bite.
References
HomePecking Order
History of ethics
History of constitution (Europe)
History of constitution (USA)
Animals also acknowledge 2 basic rights: right for freedom and right of property.
Each animal hates to be locked up and shall defend its freedom with all its force.
Each animal shall defend the food that it has found or catched against other animals with all its force.
Also with the upbringing of children these reprimands are necessary. When children do not respond to reason they undergo punishments.
They still are not able to comprehend why they are punished, but they grasp that after each forbidden act the punishment consequently shall be inflicted.
At a certain age kids will be respondent to reason and shall be approachable for explaining why they better not act that way.
When they are adult themselves they are responsable for their own deeds.
In fact law enforcement should be effective according to the same principle.
In primitive societies (tribes) a lot of conflicts are settled with utmost violence: the competitors shall combat each other with selectible weapons to the death.
But against other tribes the society was unified, one would protect each neighbour and resist against the common enemy.
Everybody knows each other. The same applies for villages centuries later.
In societies where everybody knows each other, there is great confidence in each others integrity. You can leave your front door open. Nothing shall be stolen. But if somebody out of this small community steels from another, the impact shall be life devastating for the thief. He shall be exiled with tar and feathers never to return again.
In larger cities people are not acquainted anymore. People are indifferent to each others misery. Their only common interest is the benefit of the existance of the city. Thugs can easily rob and steel from some John Doe. The stolen and robbed ones do not know by whom they have been stolen and robbed. Nobody empathizes with the victim and/or helps in the quest who the robber/thief was and where the stolen property has gone. Shady professions arise like pickpocketer, burglar, thief, robber, quack, sharper, bagger. The society presses the urge to create public services which shall safeguard lives and properties and keep order: city guard, town sheriff, patrolman.
What if these public services catch a criminal? The town sheriff was also judge and sentenced a penalty, mostly hanging. Because exile from a small community was a severe punishment but in a town, exile to another township or other town is a small punishment, the criminal will easily start all over again in all anonymity.
In several cultures, eras and continents punishments differ from a fine to prisonment in a dungeon, torture, wheelbreaking, quartering, scaffold, hanging, pillory, branding, cut off hands, etc.
Only in the 19th century you saw that criminal laws became consistent over several states which led to only one punishment: emprisonment.
Also in the 19e century the urge for a constitution became apparent, when slavery was abolished and women's rights were uprising. The industrial revolution did shift slavery from the black population to the poor. In the end all people rich or poor, women and men, are equal and are licenced to vote and to be voted.
{more to come because there is much more to be explained why the constitutions nowadays are as they are}