Constitutional Convention

Answer the questions below to guide you in creating your constitution.

A. Pick a political philosophy (direct democracy, republic, dictatorship, socialist,
communist etc.) and design a government body around it with laws. Wehe
people of the Republic of Damascus
o
Answer the questions below to see what kind of political
philosophy you might agree with:
1. How will you make the laws? Laws in our government should be
presented to the members of the assembly with both houses voting upon it.
Our Federal Supreme Court must investigate the constitutionality of the laws
passed by the legislation. When the laws do not infringe any constitutional
right our supreme judges then passed the law for the approval of the Federal
Council
i.
What type of legislature will you have? The type of
legislature we will have is Parliament.
i. Our government legislature will be run by an
assembly called the National Assembly.
ii. Our assembly will be composed of an upper
and lower house. Our government will be divided into 8 districts
each represented by 4 councillors in the, upper house, Districts
Council. Our lower house, the National Council, will be composed
of 100 members allocated between the districts proportional to
their population.
ii.
How will you select members of the legislature? The
members of the Assembly will be elected through elections each
year by adult citizens over the age of 18.
iii.
How long should members serve? Members will serve
one year with unlimited reelection.
2. How will you enforce the laws?
i.
What type of executive will you have?
Our directional republic will be composed by a collective head of state
with several people jointly exercising the powers of a head of state.
Our executive branch will be exercise jointly by 7 councillors and one
head council member.
Each of the seven councillors represent a department within the
government.
The chancellor has no vote in the Federal Council but he/she is
responsible to make all federal laws public, reports the Federal Council
activities and policies to the National Assembly, and presents ideas to
the Federal Council.

ii.
How will you select leaders?
iii.
Our seven members and our one chancellor are
elected jointly by both houses of the National Assembly every four
years.
iv.
Anyone over the age of 32 is eligible and members of
the assembly can be nominated by their parties.
v.
There are several rounds of voting with the person
with the fewest votes removed after each round.
vi.
This rounds are repeated until one candidate has the
majority of the votes.
vii.
How long should leaders serve? Our councillors and
chancellor are going to serve four years terms.
viii.
3. How will you interpret the laws?The judicial body will be composed of
6 judges, each elected by the National Assembly.
4. What type of judiciary will you have?
i. Laws will be interpreted by the Federal
Supreme Court.
ii. Judges must be nominated by the Federal
Council
iii. Nominees are then presented to the National
Assembly.
5. What are your beliefs on equality? Our beliefs of equality will be shared
equally amongst each individual .
i.
What divisions exist amongst your group?
ii.
The division between our group is between nonreligious and religious people. There are people that are not
religious or have no religion whatsoever and people who follow
Islam.
iii.
Our government should work under secularism to
protect our laws from any religious institution.
iv.
Everybody has the right to be identified by a religion.
v.
What laws would you create to protect/define
vi.
All citizens can freely express their ideas without
government intervention.
vii.
Set a secular status to protect our legislation from
religious institutions.
viii.
By protecting our laws from religious influences we
make sure that all beliefs stay equal.
ix.
x.
What would your government look like to protect and
enforce the equality laws you make?

xi.
Our government is going to be separated into 3
branches the legislative, judicial , and executive.
xii.
What rights do you believe we should have?
xiii. Freedom of religion and any form of expression
xiv. Freedom to disagree and organized protests in a
peaceful manner
xv.
Citizens are protected from unlawful searches,
therefore a warrant needs to be presented to them.
xvi. Citizens have the right to trial their cases
xvii. What laws would you create to protect/define rights?
xviii. Federal Supreme Court have the final word when new
amendments are created. They can either ratified or veto any
amendment according to principles of the constitution.
xix. Are your rights unalienable rights?
xx.
These essential rights should never be revoked from
the people
xxi. Do you have a Constitution and/or Bill of Rights? Why
or Why not? The Republic of Damascus have a constitution that will
allows the people to have a government and fundamental laws as
well as for equality for all.
6. What do you define as liberty?Liberty is being free from any control of
government as well as equality of each individual.
i.
What laws would you create to protect/define liberty?
The laws would be created to ensure protection of liberty is the
security of each individual within the society and limit certain
powers of the government.
ii.
What would your government look like to protect and
enforce the liberty? Our government would be protected by
policeman to protect government by putting standards for society
and putting and including government to establish those standards.
iii.
7. What do you think is opportunity? (ex: education, small business loans,
things that help people move out of poverty) Opportunity is when you give
someone a chance to make something of themselves
i.
What laws would you create to protect/define
opportunity? Laws created will provide everyone receiving free
education, no matter the economic status.
ii.
What would your government look like to protect and
enforce the opportunity? Government will provide refugees with a
system of education to provide them with the opportunity of
education they did not receive in their homeland
B. After you have created your constitution, address the following questions:
1. Compare and Contrast your government/constitution to the United
States Constitution. Specifically, explain how your laws and government

differ or are similar to the American Constitution and Bill of Rights. Does the
central government in the capital hold more power than the state or does
the state hold more power than the central government? Why? Why not?
Laws and government are similar since the American constitution will
consist of the national government and fundamental laws as well as establish
the equality for each citizen.On the other hand when referring to the central
government
2. Cite at least three founding ideals and why you agree or disagree with
them.
Three founding ideals is democracy, liberty and opportunity. Reasons we agree
upon democracy is that we decided to provide e a government that everyone will
be able to involve each refugee, as well as liberty which will provide freedom for
each refugee and lastly opportunity since the refugees did not get the opportunity
to complete their education we will provide them with education so they can
complete their studies.

Checklist for Constitution

Stude
nt

Teach
er

Item

Constitution has a political philosophy (direct

democracy, socialist, etc.).

It must be clear what kind of government you

have made (democracy etc.) and why you have
made it that way.
Does your government have a structure like a
Congress/Supreme Court etc. (a way of
running)?
Are the laws of your constitution
understandable, easy to follow and
enforceable?
How is it different from the American
Constitution? Give examples.
Did you answer all the questions above?

Constitution Rubric

Focus

Substance

Clarity

Approaches
Proficiency

Proficient

Exceptional

Vaguely or not at
all on topic; many
parts of the
assignment are not
addressed or are
only superficially
addressed

Mostly on topic; all

parts of the
assignment are
generally
addressed OR one
aspect of the
assignment is not
addressed

Totally on topic; all

parts of the
assignment are
fully addressed

25 Pts

30 Pts

40 Pts

Ideas not
developed; lacking
sufficient detail to
understand the
thoughts behind
the words

Ideas not
completely
developed; some
sloppy reasoning or
poorly selected
examples

Fully developed
ideas with coherent
reasoning and/or
supporting

25 Pts

30 Pts

40 Pts

Disorganized
thoughts; multiple
sentence
fragments or
spelling and
grammar errors
that distract from
the ideas being
expressed
10 Pts

Somewhat logical
sequence of ideas;
mostly complete
sentences; some
spelling and
grammar errors

15 Pts

Logical
organization of
ideas; complete
sentences; very
few spelling and
grammar errors

20 Pts

Commonwealth - a nation, state, or other political entity founded on law and united by a
compact of the people for the common good.
Constitutional - a government by or operating under an authoritative document (constitution)
that sets forth the system of fundamental laws and principles that determines the nature,
functions, and limits of that government.
Constitutional democracy - a form of government in which the sovereign power of the people
is spelled out in a governing constitution.
Democracy - a form of government in which the supreme power is retained by the people, but
which is usually exercised indirectly through a system of representation and delegated
authority periodically renewed.
Democratic republic - a state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled
to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them.
Federal (Federation) - a form of government in which sovereign power is formally divided usually by means of a constitution - between a central authority and a number of constituent
regions (states, colonies, or provinces) so that each region retains some management of its
internal affairs; differs from a confederacy in that the central government exerts influence
directly upon both individuals as well as upon the regional units.
Federal republic - a state in which the powers of the central government are restricted and in
which the component parts (states, colonies, or provinces) retain a degree of self-government;
ultimate sovereign power rests with the voters who chose their governmental representatives.
Islamic republic - a particular form of government adopted by some Muslim states; although
such a state is, in theory, a theocracy, it remains a republic, but its laws are required to be
compatible with the laws of Islam.
Parliamentary government (Cabinet-Parliamentary government) - a government in which
members of an executive branch (the cabinet and its leader - a prime minister, premier, or
chancellor) are nominated to their positions by a legislature or parliament, and are directly
responsible to it; this type of government can be dissolved at will by the parliament (legislature)
by means of a no confidence vote or the leader of the cabinet may dissolve the parliament if it
can no longer function
Presidential - a system of government where the executive branch exists separately from a
legislature (to which it is generally not accountable).
Republic - a representative democracy in which the people's elected deputies (representatives),
not the people themselves, vote on legislation.
Socialism - a government in which the means of planning, producing, and distributing goods is
controlled by a central government that theoretically seeks a more just and equitable
distribution of property and labor; in actuality, most socialist governments have ended up being

no more than dictatorships over workers by a ruling elite.

Sultanate - similar to a monarchy, but a government in which the supreme power is in the
hands of a sultan (the head of a Muslim state); the sultan may be an absolute ruler or a
sovereign with constitutionally limited authority.

BIG IDEA= POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY