The Army of the Will of the People:
the authorities must bear the accountability to the people, which elected them.

Dear reader,

We present you the page of the Army of the Will of the People, the Russian public movement, whose goal is to establish a mechanism for the responsibility of the authorities to the people, who elected them.

One of the main problems with the modern democracies in various countries is the unaccountability of the authorities to the people that elected them. The result of this unaccountability is that the authorities don·t make any effort to fulfill their direct duty in order to assure the well-being and the material, intellectual and spiritual prosperity of their people. In fact, even if the elected presidents, the heads of the governments and the deputies talk about responsibility, really they don·t bear any responsibility for the results of their government. There is no responsibility without punishment or castigation, foreseen beforehand. The word responsibility presupposes the possibility of the adverse reaction to the responsible person; responsibility requires the punishment and reward of the responsible person according to the results of his actions. A bus driver (or an airline pilot) will be punished for his errors, which caused the death or injuries of his passengers and will be imprisoned. For this, there are corresponding clauses, provided beforehand in the penal code.

At the same time, justly for the authorities, there is no direct responsibility, provided in the law, for the mismanagement of government, although their actions cause much more tragic and greater consequences, than the error of a bus driver or a pilot. For example, how were the Presidents and the Deputies that have made worse the life of their people punished? In no manner? Then, why should we call them responsible? Not reelecting them to a second term is not sufficient punishment. The bus driver also will be pushed out for ignorance of the rules of the road traffic, but is it a punishment? So, as a result, the presidents and the deputies always talk about their responsibility, although in fact they are the most irresponsible part of their countries. This situation leads to the disasters, to the pillage and degradation of many countries.

The problem described, is especially acute in the territory of the Soviet Union, especially in the Russian Federation, where the successive regimes of Gorbachov and Yeltsin led the people to calamity (separation of the country, massive extinction of the population, spiritual degradation of the society), but none of the leading figures of the two regimes have been punished for the disasters, caused to the people. The assurance of the new leaders in their unaccountability is the reason for which the new regimen of Putin, following Yeltsin, worsened the situation. (The first edict of Putin after his coming to power was the declaration of the juridical immunity of the ex-president Yeltsin and his familiars, i.e. prohibition of their juridical persecution).

These circumstances were the reason for the appearance in Russia of a new public movement, whose goal is to make the President of the Russian Federation (the RF), the Deputies and the Senators responsible. That is, to punish them with laws for a corrupt government, specified in advance. It is proposed to create a permanent mechanism of responsibility for the elected authorities (its punishment and encouragement), depending on the results of their actions. Within the framework of this mechanism, the people elected to the power will be awarded if they improve the life of the people of their countries and will be punished if they deteriorated it. The movement is called the Army of the Will of the People (AWP), because it suggests to turn over the stick and carrot (the possibility to punish and to award the authorities) by the same people, which is the Supreme Sovereign of the country. It is only with the ability to award and to punish the elected authority that one could be able to speak about democracy. Without that possibility, the people won·t really be able to rule over the authorities after their election. In fact, the concept of the power implies the possibility to award and punish the object of the power. Hence, the widespread electoral systems of modern times are not really democratic, because after the elections the people don·t have the ability to award and to punish the elected people, depending on whether they act according to the interests of the people or against them.

In order to establish the mechanism of accountability for the authorities, the Army of the Will of the People propose to adopt an amendment of the Constitution of Russia and the Law On the Trial (Judgment, Court) of the People over the President and the Federal Assembly of Russian Federation. (The two projects are elaborated by Yu.I.Mukhin.) For the international spreading of this idea we publish here the texts of these projects and the appeal of the AWP.

YOU HAVE ELECTED? IT IS FOR YOU TO JUDGE!

THE GOAL of the ARMY of the WILL of the PEOPLE

By means of referendum include in the Constitution of the Russian Federation clause 138:

Clause 138. The Federal Assembly and the President are elected with the purpose: by means of laws and decrees to organize the population for the defense of the people (the population and future generations) against the material, intellectual and spiritual deterioration of the life.

The wrong organization for the defense of the people of the Russian Federation by the Federal Assembly and the President is a crime without period of limitation against the people of the Russian Federation.

Every citizen of the Russian Federation is juror, member of the court in the trial against the Federal Assembly and the President.

And, to guarantee this amendment to the Constitution of the RF we plan to adopt the Law:

THE LAW

For the Judgment of the Russian People

against the President and the members of the Federal Assembly

1. The purpose of the Law

>Clause 1. The purpose of the Law is to give to the Russian people the possibility to award or to punish the President and the members of the Federal Assembly and to make them achieve the prosperity of the people, the constitutional defense and the improvement of the life.

2. The crime and heroic deed

Clause 2. The deterioration of the life of the people without weighty reasons is a crime against the people; the improvement of the life of the people is a heroic deed.

3. Criminals and heroes

Clause 3. According to this Law (clause 2) the President and all the members of the Federal Assembly without exception are recognized criminals and heroes according to the results of their government.

4. The recognition of the crime and heroic deed

Clause 4. The recognition of the crime or heroic deed of the President and the members of the Federal Assembly is done in the course of the trial of the people over them. Every elector expresses his will on this problem, based on his own conviction on the guilt and merits of the authorities of Russia.

Clause 5. The trial of the People over the President is organized in the moment of the elections of the new President; the trial of the People over the members of the Federal Assembly is done in the moment of the elections in the State Duma.

Clause 6. At the moment of the elections every elector, who came to the electoral division, obtains with the ballot-paper the draft verdict through the leaving President (the Federal Assembly). The verdict contains three items: Worthy of recognition, Merits the punishment, Without consequences. Every elector chooses the variant of his decision during the secret vote.

Clause 7. If more than a half of the registered electors decide: Merits the punishment, the former President (after the elections of the new President) and all the members without exceptions of the former Federal Assembly (after the elections of the new Duma) are recognized as criminals.

If more than a half of the registered electors decide: Worthy of recognition, the President and all the members of the Federal Assembly are recognized as heroes.

If no one of these variants obtains majority of votes, the solution of the people is considered as approving without consequences.

5. The punishment and the reward

Clause 8. The criminal President and the criminal Deputies of the State Duma are arrested by the organs of the Ministry of the Interior Affairs in the course of two weeks after the installation of the new authorities and are put to the jail for the sentence, equal to the term of their actual tenure of office in the convicted body of power.

The members of the Council of the Federation serve a sentence, equivalent to the term of their tenure of office in the convicted complement of the Council of Federation, after the reelections in their regions.

Clause 9. The execution of the sentence can be:

suspended, if the President or the deputy of the Duma is reelected or if the term of the member of the Council of Federation is not terminated;

cancelled, if the President or the member of the Federal Assembly with suspended sentence obtains in the new trial the verdict Worthy of Recognition;

reduced by half, if the President or the member of the Federal Assembly with suspended sentence obtains in the new trial the verdict Without consequences.

Clause 10. If the electors take the decision Without consequences, all the members of the supreme authority of the RF who didn·t have a suspended sentence, leave their position without consequences for them.

Clause 11. If the trial of the people recognize the work of the President and/or the members of the Federal Assembly Worthy of recognition, all the members of the supreme instance of the power who didn·t have suspended sentences according to this law, become the Heroes of Russia with all the rights and privileges, corresponding to this rank.

6. The period of the validity of the Law

>Clause 12. The crimes according to this Law do not have period of limitation. The authorities of the former convocations can be brought to the trial of the people and, after obtaining another verdict from the people, can be rehabilitated, deprived of titles, punished, or awarded.

7. The inevitableness of the action of the Law

Clause 13. The persons, brought in a verdict of guilty according to this Law, cannot be amnestied or pardoned.

Clause 14. The deviation from the trial of the people or the attempt to evade from fulfillment of the sentence is an especially grave crime, chastised by death penalty.

Clause 15. If the President or the members of the Federal Assembly, who have been judged according to this Law, try by any trick to deviate from the judgment of the people, then two months after the expiration of the constitutional term of the trial, they become criminals and must be executed immediately.

Clause 16. If the President or some members of the Federal Assembly try to evade the appointed punishment, they must be found and executed wherever they are.

Clause 17. If the executive instance of the power of Russia by any reason doesn·t execute the sentence according to clauses 14 and 15 of this Law, the duty to execute is given to every citizen of the Russian Federation and its foreign friends. They have the right to act in respect of these criminals and their accomplices by themselves, by any means and in any part of the world.

Clause 18. The Russian citizen, who executed by himself the sentence according to clauses 14 and 15 of the Law, becomes the Hero of Russia without any additional recommendation or decrees. In respect of the foreign friends of Russia, as well as regarding those, who executes accomplices of the criminals, the matter of the award is considered individually in any case, but the award must not be lower than the second by degree award of Russia.

8. The immutability of the Law

Clause 19. This Law is adopted by referendum and cannot be changed later by any other form, than by referendum.

We plan to adopt these amendment and Law by the following mean. We will allocate to the Army of the Will of the People 20-50 thousands fighters and will collect 2 million signatures of electors, which is necessary to organize the referendum. In the referendum the people will adopt the amendment and we will oblige the authorities to adopt the Law.

If they prevent us to follow this legal way, the AWP will force those who create obstacles for the application of the Laws of Russia.

If you are a human and not only an organism, join the AWP!

EXPLANATION

Although the idea of responsibility of the authorities to the people is absolutely natural and vital to the people of Earth, its unusualness frequently provokes incomprehension and objection of those who acquaint themselves with the text of the Law for the first time. Normally, their objections are due to a non-attentive reading of the Law and to what the critics do not work out their statements and do not correlate their alternative suggestions with the real situation. However, we believe that it is necessary to answer with details the most frequent objections.

1. The modern democracy already establishes an effective mechanism of award and punishment for the people elected to the power, by their reelection or non-reelection.

2. Without having enough information and knowledge, an ordinary elector is not competent enough in governmental problems and cannot appreciate the actions of the authorities in a proper way.

3. The authorities, who already have the possibility to deceive the people during the elections, will create an effective manipulative machine, which will make people vote against their interests and approve the actions of bad authorities.

4. Sometimes the right estimation of the authorities can only be made some term later after their actions. For example, an irresponsible government can engage debts for a massive importation and assure temporary improvement of the life of the population (with a simultaneous damage to industry). As a result, the electors will vote to award these authorities, but the following government, taking unpopular steps to amend the situation, will be judged.

5. The egoistic population will demand the baseless improvement of its material life. The power, depending on the population, will indulge the egoistic wishes of the population, which will cause the conditions of life of the forthcoming generations of the people (depletion of the resources, etc.).

6. The authorities will not permit to adopt the Law and will do everything to discredit the idea of the AWP and, possibly, to destroy the movement. The unique way to adopt the Law is to come to the power first and then adopt the Law.

7. The way to adopt the Law, suggested by the AWP, is illegal and provocative. It will cause repressions, etc.

THE ANSWERS

1. About the reelection. First of all, we have to consider the common argument of the adepts of the western democracy against the Law of the AWP, connected with their hopes to the election system. According to them, if the president or the deputy is incompetent, he will not be reelected to a second term, which is a sufficient punishment for him.

We suppose that this argument is a consequence of misunderstanding the purpose of elections. In fact, the election of any responsible doesn·t depend on the appreciation of his precedent worth, but depend on the evaluation of his capacities and abilities to govern after the elections. The estimation of the former service should be established by a separate vote. For example, the English changed the Prime Minister Churchill after the World War II, but it does not mean that they estimated negatively his activity. The recent elections of the French President (in 2002) give the opposite example: more than 80% of the French citizens voted for the reelection of J. Chirac in the second round, although in the first round only 20% voted for him (i.e. appreciated his activity).

According to the idea of the AWP, the estimation of the actions of the precedent authorities and the elections of the new authorities are separated, which will make it possible to restrict the manipulation of the public conscience during the elections. In fact, in the present, politicians force the citizens to vote for them, frightening the electors with the worse opponents, and later present the vote as the appreciation of their policy by the citizens (as in the case of Chirac).

We should also point out that the regulating capacity of not reelecting is already lost in the majority of the countries, where a system of the same several parties is established, which govern the country by turn in an inappropriate way, but do not carry any punishment (only an award a few terms later, when another party is not reelected).

However, argument 1 can be considered using the analogy between the criminal law and the political order. The adepts of this argument say: if we do not reelect a certain politician to a new term, the citizens make themselves safe from this politician and his party (and what about the others?). It is the same thing as if a court did not condemn a murderer to a punishment, but sentenced not to give him arms any more. So, we speak about punishing the politicians for their sins in the past, and not about preventing future mistakes of a certain person.

2,3. About the competence of the elector to estimate the actions of the authorities. The Law of the AWP suggests to the elector to evaluate the authorities in the question in which he is a very competent: in estimation of the quality of his own life. If the life of the elector became considerably worse without objective reasons, no manipulation will force him to believe the contrary. Anyway, in the matter of estimating his own life the elector is always more competent, than in estimating the capacities of the candidates to the power according to their promises. For this reason the judgment of the people against the authorities according to the results of their activity is even more important than the free elections of the new authorities: the inevitableness of the judgment will make the authorities act in the interests of the people and not in their own interests.

4,5. About the populist policy, which will cause negative consequences much later. According to the Law, the resolutions of the Law of the People can be reconsidered if new facts are discovered. If the precedent authorities conducted the country to a disastrous situation, the new authorities can organize a new referendum, explaining to the population the reasons of the developed situation.

Besides, if the responsible government doesn·t want to respond to the egoistical demands of quick consumption of resources, then it should organize the company to better educate their citizens, so that they can think about the forthcoming generations, about the future of the humanity. (In fact, the authorities will be interested in being judged by an educated population according to the real situation than depending on an unpredictable Judges who act according to their emotions.) If the authorities don·t care about the near future of the country (and don·t organize such company), then, as it is already said, they will be punished by the Judgment of the people a few years later.

6. About what the authorities of today will not permit to accept the Law. First, let us note that this objection does not refer to the defects of the Law, but refers to the procedure of its acceptation. If the authorities are not interested in the acceptance of the Law (the idea of the AWP is glossed over in Russia), it only proves its necessity. It is true that it will not be easy to accept the Law, but the support if this idea by various strata of society with different political points of view will facilitate the task. Anyway, in most of the countries it will be easier to accept the Law by a wide movement of its adepts than to organize a forcible revolution and to accept the Law after it (anyway, the new authorities after the revolution will not be interested in the Law either).

7. About the legality of the way of the AWP. The way of the AWP is absolutely legal and hinged on the principle of the supreme sovereignty of the people, recognized in the Constitution of the Russian Federation. AWP does not hope that the Russian parliament of today will accept the Law and so submits the Law to the referendum. If the authorities create obstacles to the people·s right to express his will, the authorities will put themselves out of the Law, because, according to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, nobody may take possession of the power in the Russian Federation. The embezzlement of the power is prosecuted by the Law. The AWP is going to kill the scoundrels that prevent the people to accomplish with their power. By killing them, the AWP will not commit any crime, because the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation includes Clause 39 Extreme necessity:

1. The damage to the interests, protected by the law, is not considered as a crime, if this damage is made in the state of extreme necessity, i.e. to prevent the danger, directly threatening to the person or the rights of this person or other persons, threatening to the interests of the society of the state, protected by the law, provided this danger could not be eliminated by other means and during this, the limits of the extreme necessity were not exceeded.

2. The excess of limits of extreme necessity is making damage, which evidently does not correspond to the character and degree of the damage that has threatened and to the circumstances, in which the danger has been eliminated, if the indicated interests were damaged equally or more than the damaged prevented. Such excess causes the criminal responsibility only in the cases of intentionally causing damages. The embezzlement of the people·s power is causing the people such a grave damage, that the death of a handful of scoundrels is damage obviously less grave than the eliminated damage. It is the same as killing a collaborator of an occupational administration. It is not a crime, but it is an exploit!

Such are the main principles of the program of the AWP.