The Constitution states that beings which exist as individuals should only interact in a voluntary manner. It is the only law, from it are derived the rulings against murder, rape, abuse, theft, and assault. There are no taxes, and no government services, but the courts, police and military, and there is no regulation of private lives and property. The government, which has less than twenty thousand employees, is funded through a social custom much like tithing (which is highly regarded), and funds left from the sale of Earths technology to Kentaurans and the Sandlings. Ninety percent of households possess weapons and surveys suggest most owners have received training with them. Neither alcohol, nor drug use is restricted.
There are only a few issues on which voting takes place. Declaring war and extending New Canaan's laws and control to other territories (only voluntary); expenditure plans for funds from the sale of Earth technology, and appointing someone to act as a messenger for New Canaan (much like a very limited diplomat, must be chosen as well as the message by vote). New Canaan has a police force, known as the redcaps because of their headgear. They are a very prestigious organization to join and are very selective.
New Canaan has a military which consist of just ten thousand cybernetically enhanced marines and a navy of slightly smaller numbers. The Armaggedon class battleships are the flagships of the fleet and are manned by artificial intelligence. The rest of the fleet is relatively small, and most of the employees are actually techs.
Let's look at what the New Canaan government really is. The New Canaan government's sole role, and power, is that it is the only body in the system with the right to use force, but the New Canaan constitution only allows for its use against those who initiate the use of force, or endanger the public through criminal negligence. This means that the government may not require you to pay a portion of your income for government services. It means that you may not be drafted for war, or be forced to redistribute your wealth to the rest of the populace through welfare, or finance public works. This means that the power, perhaps the most important power in government, to control the purse strings, lies in the hands of the citizens directly.
Without government direction people must freely make their own decisions on many issues which governments have traditionally controlled. The strength of the military, for instance, is now dependant on the voluntary contributions of millions of individuals. There is a problem with individuals making this decision though, as most do not have the knowledge at their disposal to make effective estimates of the financial needs of the military. There is also the problem of those who would value the benefit of military strength, but would not pay in, hoping that others would carry the burden. Slowly we have come to solve these problems of information gathering and discipline through voluntary organization.
These voluntary organizations we are coming to know as Polis Clubs. They are voluntary states within the state. Our law permits any contract so long as it is binding only to the signers. Seventy three years ago the New Canaan Exploration Society was founded, and rapidly became the first widespread legal binding of sometimes disparate peoples in the name of a single cause. Passionate arguments were being made for increased reconnaisance of the local region of space at the time and many citizens supported funding exploration ventures for the sake of the common good. No mechanism for creating this funding existed, and donations were frustratingly inadequate. Strong supporters of the movement to map local space publicly signed an agreement to create an account for the accumulation of funds, which would be dispensed by an official elected by members. Members agreed to pay five percent of their annual income, for a renewable ten year period, into the joint account or face legal action and a stiff penalty. Later court cases upheld the binding nature of these social contracts. Today forty percent of New Canaan Citizens belond to the NC Exploration Society.
Many people belond to multiple Polis Clubs as they serve a wide variety of functions. The Falsooth Peninsula is home only to members of the Falsooth Economic Cooperation Initiative. The founders collectively purchased the lands of the peninsula and agreed to resell them at cost to members only. Those wishing to join the group may purchase land, but agrees to pay an annual income tax for the purpose of building member use roads, schools, sanitation systems, water systems, electrical grids and hospitals.
The people of NC are very polite. Descendants of ship crews who had to be careful not to drive one another insane working in cramped quarters for years on end, they have a frontier sort of etiquette. They tend to be extremely generous and polite until they feel someone has crossed the line. Onboard ships and stations giving offense is a dangerous matter as the captains word is law, and there are those who have been spaced for nothing more than atrocious manners.
This is a description of one of the stations Greg Sullivan was stationed at during his time in the Belt Confederation. This station is very much like those employed by the New Canaan military, and many corporations.
Gueval Station
After the secession of Ceres, Vesta and Pallas in the War of Independence, (2141) Emperor of the Belt Confederation, Jonathan Richtor, directed that a significant portion of the Navy's funds were to be allocated to the production of "balloon stations" throughout the belt. In the tradition of all thirty-seven of the original stations, Gueval Station was named after its designer. The station had a horizontal axis of 12,611 meters in length. It was 5,156 meters wide. There was approximately one hundred square kilometers of usable surface in the interior. It completed a full rotation twenty-two times an hour, producing a range of gravities from .1 to .5 within.
The current fashion for appearance is for women to look wizened (40-45) and for men to look young (20-25). Easily achieved at the time of regeneration, when organs are replaced with those grown from youthful cell samples.