I. Nature and Purpose The Congress of Scotland is the standing assembly of the Scottish people. It is neither government nor opposition, but the living conscience of the state — the body through which the people continually define the limits of power. Congress does not govern. It grants and withdraws powers from the Presidency, shaping the authority of the state without wielding that authority itself. Every Act of Congress is constitutional in nature: it determines what powers the President possesses , not how those powers are used . The President, through the Cabinet, determines what must be done within those powers. II. Composition and Election Congress consists of one hundred seats, renewed by rotation. Each year twenty-five seats fall vacant and are contested by instant-runoff election. Members serve four-year terms and may hold office for a maximum of three terms in their lifetime. Any citizen born in Scotland and resident within their community may stand for election. Members sit as individuals; no parties, factions, or permanent alliances exist within the chamber. III. Operation and Deliberation Congress meets continuously. Any member may convene a session to raise a matter of authority or inquiry. Debate is open to the public, conducted in full view of the galleries, and preserved in the national record. A vote requires the assent of a majority of all members for any power to be granted or withdrawn. Acts of Congress take effect immediately upon passage. IV. Duty and Accountability Members of Congress are accountable solely to their communities. They serve as observers, listeners, and custodians of the national balance. Their principal work lies in gathering knowledge, engaging with citizens, and deciding when the powers of the state should expand, contract, or be redefined. Attendance, conduct, and reputation are judged directly by the people; neglect of duty is punished through the ballot, not by rule. V. Permanence and Sovereignty Congress cannot be dissolved. It is the permanent expression of the people’s consent — a chamber that endures even as its members change. Through it, the people remain sovereign: watching, judging, and, when necessary, recalling the power they have lent.

I. The Common Ground In the Republic, architecture begins with the soil. All land is public, held in trust by the state on behalf of the people. It cannot be owned, traded, or hoarded, for the earth itself is the foundation of equality. Plots are allocated by purpose — civic, domestic, productive — not by title or speculation. This simple truth ends the old order of private dominion. The citizen may build and shape, but never enclose what belongs to all. The nation’s surface is shared, and in that sharing begins justice. II. The National Frame Upon this common ground rises the frame — a lattice of steel and service built by Modular Scotland. It defines the shape of streets and the rhythm of facades; it carries water, power, and light. Every bay of every town is pre-fitted to receive modules, ensuring that what is raised today can be replaced tomorrow without waste or sprawl. The frame is permanent, civic, and inviolate: the skeleton of the Republic itself. It is not an imposition on freedom, but the very condition that makes freedom orderly. Within it, the state provides structure; within structure, the citizen finds space. III. The Right to Build Each citizen may purchase and install their own modules — rooms, courtyards, workshops, shopfronts — designed either by Modular Scotland or any certified maker. No permit or negotiation is required. A dwelling may begin as a simple state home and grow into a composition of private design. One family may live behind timber, another behind stone; one may fit ornate columns, another plain steel. The only rule is compatibility with the frame. Thus the Republic achieves what the old world could not: individuality without anarchy, beauty without sprawl. Every home is a portrait, every street a conversation. IV. The Economy of Production Because the land and frame are public, profit arises only through creation. A citizen or firm earns by designing, fabricating, or refining modules — by adding to the material wealth of the nation, not by withholding it. The housing sector, once a sink of idle capital, becomes a living craft industry: steelworks, mills, workshops, and design houses competing to fill the Republic’s frames with skill and imagination. Modular Scotland anchors affordability through its public stock, while private makers expand the field of taste and technique. The result is a steady, tangible economy — production in place of speculation, artistry in place of debt. V. The Philosophy of Form Architecture in the Republic is not a monument to power but a language of life. The ground belongs to all; the frame belongs to the nation; the form belongs to the citizen. Streets evolve as their inhabitants do, changing without decay, expressing the spirit of each generation without erasing the past. A home is not a prize to be won, but a statement to be written — and rewritten — upon the shared canvas of the Republic. Through this union of permanence and freedom, the nation itself becomes architecture: stable in foundation, alive in form.

I. The Question of Scale Civilisation begins with proportion. When the scale of life exceeds the comprehension of those who live within it, community decays into administration, and freedom dissolves into noise. The modern world mistakes size for success; it multiplies connections without meaning. Alternative Scotland begins from the opposite conviction — that justice, privacy, and belonging all depend on the measure  of things. The failure of the age is not technological, but spatial. The sprawl of cities, the diffusion of community, and the abstraction of governance have created a nation too vast for moral contact. To restore political order, the physical order must first be corrected. II. Bounded Settlement The fundamental unit of life in Alternative Scotland is the town or village — a complete civic organism with a visible boundary and a coherent centre. Boundaries are moral instruments: they define the extent of responsibility. A community cannot be infinite; it must have an edge where the known ends and the commons begin. Towns and villages are placed in proximity, yet separated by open land. The spaces between are not wastelands but the connective tissue of the nation — fields, woodland, and water that breathe between settlements. Scotland’s population may rise to ten million, but its form remains human: distinct places, each complete within itself. III. The Road and the High Street Movement gives life to place. Through-traffic is not a nuisance but a form of witness — the continual passage of people and goods that keeps a town awake. Every principal road that links the nation passes through the heart of settlement, becoming the High Street as it enters and exits. The High Street is the visible expression of society. It is where movement and rest, commerce and conversation, converge. The life of the nation flows through these streets, not around them. IV. The Architecture of Privacy A just society protects the individual not only by law but by design. The home is the smallest unit of freedom, and its form must reflect the hierarchy of privacy that nature demands. In Alternative Scotland, dwellings are constructed to provide depth: thresholds, rooms, balconies, courtyards — spatial gradations that allow a person to retreat without isolation. Multi-storey living is common, as verticality doubles privacy, yet no single form is prescribed. What matters is that no citizen’s most private space lies in view of a stranger. V. The Courtyard Principle The spatial logic of the nation is inward coherence. Settlements are composed around courtyards, squares, and greens — enclosures that gather life while maintaining openness to the wider landscape. The courtyard, in all its forms, is the meeting of boundary and belonging. It reconciles the right to privacy with the need for community. This principle extends to the national scale: a country formed not by expansion but by articulation — countless centres, each whole within itself. VI. Commerce and Custodianship Public space depends upon trade. A square without shops is a void; a town without exchange is a dormitory. Every civic space in Alternative Scotland is animated by independent retail and craftsmanship. The buildings that house them belong to the state, held in trust for the people. The businesses within belong to their proprietors. This arrangement prevents both private monopoly and public stagnation. It ensures that prosperity circulates while place remains secure. The economy becomes social without ceasing to be free. VII. The Shape of the Nation From these principles arises a form both new and ancient: a country composed of complete communities, joined by roads that carry life through their hearts, built to scales that the mind can comprehend. Privacy and participation, rest and motion, freedom and structure — all held in balance by proportion. This is the shape of the nation. Not a skyline of ambition, but a landscape of order. A civilisation rebuilt to human measure.

I. Purpose Local government in the Republic exists to sustain the social and cultural life  of the community. Its task is not administrative but civilisational: to guard the character, dignity, and vitality of each town. It tends to public spaces, festivals, traditions, craftsmanship, and civic beauty—the elements that give a people shape and memory. II. Structure Every municipality is governed by a Mayor  and Cabinet . The Mayor is elected by instant-runoff majority  of local citizens. The Cabinet is appointed at the Mayor’s discretion but must be confirmed in a townhall vote , ensuring the people’s confidence in those who serve. The Cabinet operates as an extension of the Mayor’s stewardship, each member entrusted with distinct aspects of civic life—culture, youth, heritage, public works, and the care of place. III. Tenure and Renewal A mayoral term lasts three years . No individual may serve consecutive terms , though former mayors remain eligible for re-election after a full term has elapsed. The Mayor and Cabinet remain in office until the next election concludes. The President  may call a local election at any time; this act may be vetoed by a majority of Congress , preserving the balance between national authority and local continuity. IV. Authority and Resources Local governments act only within powers granted by the Constitution  or delegated by the President . Their budgets are issued by the state and used solely to advance the cultural and communal wellbeing of their people. Additional voluntary funding may be received through the Community Chest , a civic mechanism allowing citizens to donate anonymously to local projects.( See: Community Chest ) V. Philosophy The Republic’s constitution is fractal: its pattern repeats at every level of authority. The President stands to the Mayor as Congress stands to the President—each subject to oversight, each answerable to the people. Local government is not an echo of bureaucracy but a living expression of belonging. The Mayor and Cabinet are not rulers, but guardians of place —entrusted to keep the common life beautiful, humane, and alive.