New England has within it two strong political leanings, Socialism and Libertarianism, often mistakenly referred to as “liberalism” and “republicanism.” Any political entity encompassing all of New England must permit both of these tendencies to co-exist. I propose a new form of government fit for New England.

New England has within it two strong political leanings, Socialism and Libertarianism, often mistakenly referred to as “liberalism” and “republicanism.” Any political entity encompassing all of New England must permit both of these tendencies to co-exist. I propose a new form of government fit for New England.

Within the political entity, “New England”, each major sub-entity, currently referred to as states, should be conceived as nodes in a network. The political entity “New England itself should be thought of as a network with a minimalist structure for administering this network. Each node should be legally autonomous, hold equal status with all other nodes, and be free to form economic and infrastructure relationships with other nodes in the network as mutually consenting nodes see fit. The network itself, hereafter referred to as “The Network of Autonomous Commonwealths” (geographically coextensive with the current New England) should concern itself only with foreign policy, mutual defense, arbitration of conflicts between the nodes, the issuance of a currency, the guarantor of a bill of rights and representative of The Network of Autonomous Commonwealths within the U.N. and other international bodies.

The Network of Autonomous Commonwealths should remain strictly neutral in foreign policy, forming no permanent alliances with nations, and have no standing military. All persons living within the Network of Autonomous Commonwealths will enjoy equal rights. The only citizenship requirement for the Network of Autonomous Republics should be residency within the Network. All residents of the Network of Autonomous Republics should be responsible for her defense at times of war, which by definition as a neutral state can only be defensive. Therefore, while there is no standing military, all residents are considered to be combatants at times of war. This will encourage the Network to refrain from war, equally distribute the responsibility for defense and eliminate the need for a standing military.

Each node within the Network will be referred to politically as a commonwealth. Each commonwealth, provided it respects and enforces the Bill of Rights (see above), will be free to organize itself internally as it sees fit and is free to extend the Bill of Rights as it sees fit. Therefore, commonwealths likely to embrace a libertarian philosophy, such as New Hampshire, will be free to implement a capitalist economic system. Commonwealths like to embrace a socialist philosophy, such as Massachusetts, Vermont and Connecticut would be free to add additional rights such as the right to universal healthcare, free university education, shelter, food, etc. In order to pay for these services, such states would be free to form associations with other nodes (commonwealths) in the network, integrate their economies as they see fit, and share their resources as they see fit. The Network of Autonomous Commonwealths will neither hinder nor show preference for any such relationships constructed between its commonwealths.

In time, this model could be encouraged within the Maritime Provinces of Canada as well, as they are a natural part of the same geographical region as New England. An open invitation should be extended to those provinces to join the Network of Autonomous Commonwealths.