Short, direct answers to the questions this proposal gets most often. Each one links to the clause that controls it.
Last updated 24 October 2026
What is the American Upgrade?
It is a volunteer project proposing a complete constitutional upgrade, not a party and not a candidacy. Its three planks are politics by lot, a ceiling on wealth, and rights that cannot be bought. The full draft is published, with a plain-language reading alongside every clause.
Is this a coup, or a revolution?
Neither. The proposal is a written constitution adopted through a founding referendum and a public transition, with continuity of law and vested rights. The text provides for a Founding Day, a first draw and a first census; it also provides that departure from the Commonwealth is absolutely protected. The point is to outmode the old system, not to seize it.
Article XIII: The Founding and Transition · §3 Continuity of Laws
How can 500 randomly selected people govern a country?
They are not asked to be experts in everything. The Citizen Jury sets direction and decides Final Passage; a professional civil service drafts, measures and administers; the Policy Council frames problems; the Synthesist supplies analysis under adversarial audit; and the Citizen's Advocate Staff is a permanent counter-bureaucracy. Jurors receive six months of civic education and training before any binding vote, serve one term, and cannot be re-elected — there is no campaign to fund or career to protect.
Article II, §2: The Legislative Branch · Article III: The Synthesist
What stops the rich from buying the state?
Four walls. Political equality is an entrenched right. The Ratio of Cohesion caps individual net worth at 100× the median income; Surplus above the Ceiling returns to the Commons as a social dividend and is enforced through anti-hoarding rules, entity attribution and a Zero-Knowledge proof of net worth. There are no elections to buy, and no private money is needed to run for anything that is drawn by lot.
Article I, §2: Political Equality · Article IV, §1: The Ratio of Cohesion · Article IV, §3: Prevention of Evasion
What if the wealthy leave — or hide the money?
The right to leave is absolute: no one may be detained, coerced or stripped of citizenship as a condition of departure. But wealth above the Ceiling was never private property; it is Surplus held in trust for the Commons, and emigration does not change that. On renunciation the departing citizen keeps everything up to the Ceiling, settles the Surplus above it, and files a Zero-Knowledge proof. A citizen resident abroad for more than five years settles as if they had renounced, and may still return. Concealment is a High Crime.
Article IV, §3: Capital Flight and the Smooth Exit · Article XIII, §4: Reconciliation of Surplus
Is AI in charge?
No. The Synthesist — the civic intelligence — may never vote, hold office or issue a binding order; its access to decision-making is read-only. It speaks only when queried or when flagging a clear contradiction, and its outputs are subject to a human Devil's Advocates panel and a Red Team framing audit. A measure affecting more than one percent of GDP or fundamental rights may not rest solely on AI analysis. The final vote is always human, by secret ballot.
Article III, §2: The Firewall of Humanity · Article III, §3: Transparency and Control
Was this written by AI?
AI assisted the drafting, editing, checking and plain-language work; humans made the decisions and are responsible for the text. The project discloses this rather than hiding it, publishes this record, and has put the text through repeated audits — including an external review in October 2026 — with every finding either applied or declined with a stated reason.
What happens to existing wealth on Founding Day?
Net worth above the Ceiling that existed the day before Founding Day is reconciled to the Commons in equal annual portions over ten years, so no person or household suffers a confiscation shock. The reconciliation is described as the return of surplus held in trust, not a penalty, and the proceeds go to the Social Dividend and the Resilience Fund. Transfers made after Founding Day to place assets beyond reach are void.
Can I be forced into office?
Every adult citizen enters the Civic Pool at majority. Service is a civic duty, not a career: employers must grant a Civic Leave of Absence and the citizen keeps the right to return to an equivalent position without losing seniority. Exemptions are limited to severe medical incapacity or conflicting duties of care that State support cannot mitigate, decided by the Administrator of the Blind Examination with written reasons and review by the Tribunal. Seating also requires a basic competency screen, applied with reasonable accommodation.
What about emergencies — can this become a dictatorship?
The emergency architecture is designed around the Weimar failure. The High Council can declare an acute State of Emergency only with the Tribunal's concurrence; a three-member first-responder declaration lasts at most 24 hours unless the Tribunal concurs; a protracted emergency requires the Citizen Jury. War, plague, rebellion and ecological emergency cannot suspend habeas corpus, the press, sortition, the ban on torture, the right to a fair trial, bodily autonomy or the Non-Derogable Core.
Article VII, §3: Emergency Powers · Article I, §11: Non-Derogable Rights
How are judges and guardians removed?
No branch is above the law, and each office has its own leash. A Tribunal Judge may be removed only for gross misconduct, gross corruption or severe medical incapacity — initiated by a formal finding of the Citizen's Advocate Staff, with written notice, a hearing and an appeal — and then only by a two-thirds vote of the whole Citizen Jury, confirmed by a Jury of Peers of 100 drawn from the verified judicial pool.
The Guardian of Future Generations and of Nature is removable only for gross misconduct, gross corruption or severe medical incapacity, on an Advocate Staff finding, after written notice and a hearing before the Citizen Jury, by a two-thirds vote of the whole Jury — and never for the content of a certification.
For the Guardians of the Peace, the Chief Guardian and commanders are removable by the Tribunal for gross misconduct or severe medical incapacity after notice and a hearing; an individual Guardian may be dismissed only after a public hearing with written reasons and an appeal, and the Citizen Review Board may dismiss a Guardian for misconduct by a majority of its whole membership, subject to that hearing, reasons and appeal.
Article V, §4: Judicial Accountability and Recall · Article XI, §6: The Guardian of Future Generations and of Nature · Article X, §1: The Guardians of the Peace
How big can this scale?
The Constitution is designed as a fractal lotocracy: decisions belong at the most local level possible, with regions and cities handling infrastructure, zoning and local services, while the national government handles defence, foreign policy and constitutional rights. Regional structure, fiscal autonomy, conflict of laws and inter-regional disputes are set out in Article VIII. The draw is stratified to mirror the population, so the same design can operate at more than one scale.
Article VIII, §1: Subsidiarity · Article VIII, §2: Regional Structure
How do I join?
The project is convening an interest list for the First 500 — a Shadow Congress of randomly selected people. The form has three fields, no fee and no party. Joining the list does not commit you to anything and does not guarantee selection; if you are drawn, the project trains you, pays you and films the process. The form opens on Google Forms; we never sell your data — see the privacy note.
If a question is missing here, that is useful. The Method & Corrections page explains how to challenge the text, and the full document is public in both registers.