Government

What sort of government will Mars have

The early smaller size conlynees will be very different to Earth for some time, there will be no money on Mars, any person with health problems or is unable to fulfill a useful contribution will need to be returned to Earth if possible. All colonist will be primarily well trained with specific specialties and other roles will be fulfilled as their secondary skills.

A view from Elon Musk

"Most likely the form of government on Mars would be a direct democracy, not representative," said Musk. "So it would be people voting directly on issues. And I think that's probably better, because the potential for corruption is substantially diminished in a direct versus a representative democracy."

Elon Musk also proposed any laws have a sunset clause that laws automatically get erased after a set of time unless they are re-approved.

Personal Rights (Constitution)

An issue of majority rule is the rights of individuals. So a level of rights would need to be incorporated.

The right to vote(universal suffrage), the rights for fundamental life support(Heat, Water, Air, Food and medical aid) Radiation Shelter usage and a place to sleep. The right to return to Earth.

A more complex right will be that to have children as first there will be many vital considerations (assuming you can have children successfully on Mars)

The right to have a personal belief system that is not restricted to humanism and will contribute to the collective well being on Mars ( Will be interesting when UAE set up their proposed city on Mars by 2117)

Comment

I agree that direct democracy is a good way forward, Every colonist would have the right to vote electronically on all decisions, The way this would work would be that those directly specialised on the topic of debate would help formulate the choices presented with the addition of 'none of the above'. If 'none of the above' is selected then the submitted issus choices will need to be reconsider and opened to debate.

To accomplish this there would need to have working groups on, maybe with a balance of specialists(experts) and colonist volunteers.

There in my view would also need to have an veto triggered by any colonist that will be prioritized by the level of any imminent risk to the colony or individual.

Also an emergency veto in times of imminent danger for unforseen urgent issues that have not had a contingency plan already in place.

Representative governance

There is the issue of emergencies, So there would need to be some level of authoritative top down decision making, how this would function would need to be a single person or an AI, unfortunately this also requires a backup hierarchy, this could be a special group with command responsibilities, the leadership should be rotated, with each member of the group being deselected in rotation for possible re-election, the power of this body would need to be defined for Emergency only. In normal day to day running the direct democracy would keep control.

Personal law

Any issues of criminal intent or attack would need to be firmly disciplined with the ultimate of being sent back to Earth unless on repeal form the other colonists vote. The most likely issue being of relationships riverly or from mental instability from living in such confined and stressful environment.

Private Ownership will be more complex than here on Earth, the right to have one's own place of abode yet all colonist to have access when needed.

Mars Property rights

As in the Wild West there will be claims to land on Mars as at first will be open to those able to get there from Earth, the number of these will grow as other nations and companies start their own bases on Mars or from multiple different colonies settled by the same groups.

Each such base will most likely keeps its self determination for some time to come.

Initially there will be no way to enforce any jurisdiction on Mars but rather from back on Earth, We can hope that there will be no need to militarise Mars but the USA is already looking into a 'Space Force'.

Cooperation on Mars between bases set up by different 'Nation States' and 'Corporations' from Earth hopefully will be there for emergency support (if possible) in a similar way to disasters responce here on Earth.

Long Term

In the future I am sure there will be a independent Mars political system, yet maybe part of a more far reaching 'Federation of Colonies and United Solar systems(FOCUS)

Triva

Interesting in Dr. Wernher von Braun's 1949 book 'Project Mars - A Technical Tale' (PDF link) we read on page 177 from Chapter 24 'How Mars is Governed'

'The Martian government was directed by ten men, the leader of whom was elected by

universal suffrage for five years and entitled "Elon." Two houses of Parliament enacted

the laws to be administered by the Elon and his cabinet. '

Maybe Wernher von Braun was from the future after all and knew about Elon Musk :)