National institutions

“ Such things constitute the spirit of the institutions of a country; that portion of their influence which is least regarded by common, and especially by English thinkers, though the institutions of every country, not under great positive oppression, produce more effect by their spirit than by any of their direct provisions, since by it they shape the national character. ”

“ It demands, or will eventually demand, that these individuals shall love and wish to serve their fellow-countrymen, and it will demand specifically that in the service of their fellow-countrymen, they shall reorganize their country's economic, political, and social institutions and ideas. Just how the making of competent individual instruments will of its own force assist the process of national reconstruction, we shall consider presently ”

“ Most of all is this the case in what are sometimes called constitutionally-governed countries—that is, countries in which representative institutions have reached a tolerable degree of advancement, and political knowledge and interest are widely diffused. ”

“ The Federal and state governments are parts of one system, alike necessary for the common prosperity, peace and security, and ought to be regarded alike with a cordial, habitual and immovable attachment. ”

“ I place myself and my administration at the service of all the people without distinction as to creed, class, or station, and pledge my whole effort to the production of their fundamental rights, the improvement of their livelihood, and the defense of their free institutions. ”

“ Our birthright, the wise anticipation of those who framed our Government, our national and constitutional organization, which has repeated itself in all the States of the Union, this wholesome and just division of power between the three great independent, co-ordinate branches of the Government—the executive, the legislative, and the judicial—has already demonstrated that what seems to the nations of Europe to be a complicated and jangling system produces in fact the most perfect harmony, and the most complete and satisfactory organization for social order and for national strength. ”

“ According to the circumstances of each case, consular and other official missions established in Hong Kong by states which have no formal diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China may be permitted either to remain or be changed to semi-official missions.
States not recognized by the People's Republic of China may only establish non-governmental institutions in the Region. ”

“ How much more sublime is the idea of forming a great nation, by a chain of republicks, subordinate to publick good, than by a chain of satraps subordinate to imperial will, or of chartered companies subordinate to selfish avarice? Such a system stands upon national interest. No people, except ourselves, have seriously attempted to make this interest the basis of civil government. ”

“ This system, sir, will at least make us a nation, and put it in the power of the Union to act as such. We shall be considered as such by every nation in the world. We shall regain the confidence of our citizens, and command the respect of others.
As we shall become a nation, I trust that we shall also form a national character, and that this character will be adapted to the principles and genius of our system of government: as yet we possess none; our language, manners, customs, habits, and dress, depend too much upon those of other countries. ”

“ It may be affirmed, consequently, without paradox, that among those branches of the American national organization which are greatly in need of nationalizing is the central government. Almost every member of the American political body has been at one time or another or in one way or another perverted to the service of special interests. ”

“ The government of a country so vast and various must be strong, prompt, wieldy, and efficient. Its strength must consist in the certainty and uniformity of its purposes, in its accord with national sentiment, in its unhesitating action, and in its honest aims. It must be steadied and approved by open administration diligently obedient to the more permanent judgments of public opinion; and its only active agency, its representative chambers, must be equipped with something besides abundant powers of legislation. ”

“ The nation and the national government will be the custodian of the national literature and the common law, the controller and perhaps the vehicle of intermunicipal and international trade, and an intermediary between its municipal governments and that great Congress to which all things are making, that permanent international Congress which will be necessary to insure the peace of the world. ”

“ Members of the Legislative Council returned by the other functional constituencies shall be elected by eligible corporate voters. Eligible corporate voters for functional constituencies shall be composed of institutions, organisations, associations or enterprises which are representative and specified by law. Unless specified in the electoral law of the HKSAR, an association or enterprise may become a corporate voter for a functional constituency only if it has been operating for not less than three years after acquiring relevant qualifications for that functional constituency. ”

“ The constitution of such countries is an organization of the experience and practical ability of the nation, into a disciplined body for the purpose of governing the rest; and the more perfect that organization is in itself, the more successful in drawing to itself and educating for itself the persons of greatest capacity from all ranks of the community, the more complete is the bondage of all, the members of the bureaucracy included. ”

“ It appears to us, that a sovereign government promotes its power as well as the interests of its subjects, by confining the direct exercise of its legislative and administrative functions to matters of general and permanent concern ”

“ The government on the one hand should employ its armed force to eradicate all internal obstacles and, on the other, disseminate its doctrines to enlighten the people as well as to promote national unity. 7. As soon as a province is completely restored to order, the period of political tutelage will commence and the military period will come to an end. 8. In the period of political tutelage the government should send persons, qualified through training and examination, to various counties to assist the people in the preparation of self-government. ”

“ I propose three organizations to stand for these three life-forces, three organizations which will act—each of which will act with the other two and will follow out for a nation, as individuals do for individuals, the law of life—of producing and reproducing the national life. ”

“ Political authority is exercised in national affairs by the National Government in accordance with the Constitution of the Commonwealth, and in State affairs by the State Governments in accordance with the State constitutions. ”

“ In any event, it is obvious that the development in this country of two such powerful and unscrupulous and well-organized special interests has created a condition which the founders of the Republic never anticipated, and which demands as a counterpoise a more effective body of national opinion, and a more powerful organization of the national interest. ”

“ The powers, therefore, belonging to any branch of our government, are to be construed and settled, not by remote analogies drawn from other governments, but from the words of the grant itself, in their plain sense and necessary import, and according to an interpretation consistent with our own history and the spirit of our own institutions. ”

“ That the central government was created chiefly for matters of a general character, which concerned all the States and their people, and not for matters of interior regulation, is shown as much by the history of its formation as by the express language of the Constitution. ”

“ To each State is left the care and supervision of those matters which directly and exclusively concern the citizens of the State, and thus individuality and initiative in the development of local spirit and character, are stimulated and encouraged, but those matters which properly concern the people as a whole are cared for by the representatives of the people in one department or another of the National Government. ”

“ On the Government we can put our hand as a certain organization of ruling functions, the machinery of law-making and law-enforcing. The Administration is a recognizable group of political functionaries, temporarily in charge of the government. But the State stands as an idea behind them all, eternal, sanctified, and from it Government and Administration conceive themselves to have the breath of life. Even the nation, especially in times of war—or at least, its significant classes—considers that it derives its authority, and its purpose from the idea of the State. ”

“ And To Do That Adequately And Dependably, Government Must Possess The Capacity To Execute Good Policy And Deliver Basic Services Through Strong And Responsive Institutions Staffed By A Competent And Dedicated Bureaucracy. In Short, Government Must Be The Arm Of A Strong Republic. ”

“ When we are asking for the maintenance of the rights which belong to our fellow-subjects, resident abroad, let us do as we would be done by, and let us pay that respect Page 85 to a feeble State, and to the infancy of free institutions, which we would desire and should exact from others, towards their maturity and their strength. ”

“ In contests of this nature, where a considerable body of people who have attempted to free themselves of the control of the superior government have reached such point in occupation of territory, in power, and in general organization as to constitute in fact a body politic; having a government in substance as well as in name; possessed of the elements of stability and equipped with the machinery for the administration of internal policy and the execution of its laws ”

“ All these regulations are important and worthy to be remembered, that the learned statesmen who regulate the affairs of civilized governments may be informed of them, and may feel astonished at the knowledge that a barbarous people without letters should have been found to have had institutions such as we know that they possessed, both with reference to internal polity and to their plans of extending their dominion over other nations. ”

“ The internal administration of government, and the institutions by which the industrial pursuits of the mass of the people were regulated, and peace and order preserved, and justice enforced between man and man, were all this time in the hands of men well qualified, on the whole, for the trusts committed to their charge, and in a good degree faithful in the performance of their duties ”

“ Our government must be surrounded by all the forces of civilization, in the midst of which it will have to function. It will surround itself with publicists, experienced lawyers, administrators, diplomats, and, finally, people educated along special lines in our special advanced schools. ”

“ And if, at one time, through the care of an able physician, a member of that body was healed, the rest remained afflicted as before.”51 In other passages, Bahá’u’lláh spells out some of the practical implications. The governments of the world are called upon to convene an international consultative body as the foundation, in the words of the Guardian, of “a world federal system”52 empowered to safeguard the autonomy and territory of its state members, resolve national and regional disputes and coordinate programmes of global development for the good of the entire human race. ”

“ The more you spread government as an organization of the people themselves, the more humane, upon that working basis, are likely to be its operations—on one condition: that such organisation of the people, whatever its numbers, submits to the operation of its own laws and shares equally in the conditions which it imposes—that, if it provides a qualification for citizenship, it provides also the means for all to qualify. ”

“ In the first place, it has been deemed desirable to afford a wide opportunity for the comparative study of political institutions, especially by reason of the familiar fact that the governmental system of a minor country may, and frequently does, exhibit elements of novelty and of importance not inferior to those to be observed in the political organization of a greater state. ”

“ It is important, no doubt, that the respective interests of the various territorial, professional, religious and other sections of society should be, as far as may be convenient, represented in the administration of the Government. ”

“ The General Government, strictly confined to its delegated functions, and the State left in the undisturbed exercise of all else, we have a theory and practice which fits our Government for immeasurable domain, and might, under a millennium of nations, embrace mankind. ”

“ Ask we too the ages what they have done to develope the true theory of political organisation, to improve the mechanism of the social system, to impart practical wisdom to its ministrations, in order that the State may discharge its high duty to the citizen, for whose sake it exists, and whose allegiance it claims. ”

“ A provisional government for the control and management of public affairs and the protection of the public is hereby established, to exist until terms of union with the United States of America have been negotiated and agreed upon. ”