12 Principles of the Republic of Free Citizens
Why a Constitution begins not with state institutions, but with an understanding of the individual, freedom, and the limits of power
Why do some states create the conditions for freedom, development, and prosperity, while others remain weak despite possessing considerable resources and formally sound laws?
For many years, I have been asked what a new Constitution of Ukraine should look like.
It is an important question. Over time, however, I came to believe that it should be framed differently.
Before defining the powers of parliament, government, the president, or the courts, we must answer more fundamental questions:
What is the state for?
What place does the individual occupy within it?
What must public authority do, and what must it never be permitted to do under any circumstances?
A Constitution does not create society from a blank page. It enshrines a particular understanding of the individual, freedom, property, responsibility, justice, and power.
If that understanding is flawed, even the most sophisticated legal text will not make a country free and prosperous. If the fundamental principles are defined correctly, however, they can guide the development of legislation, public institutions, and social relations for generations.
That is why any discussion of a new model for the Ukrainian Republic must begin not with a list of state bodies, but with the principles on which the Republic itself is built.
I propose twelve interrelated principles upon which the Republic of Free Citizens can be founded.
The First Principle
Freedom is the primary foundation of society
Every human being is born free.
Freedom is not granted by the state. It is not created by parliament or bestowed by a public official. A Constitution merely recognises and protects what belongs to every person by virtue of their human nature.
A citizen should therefore not be required to prove to the state that they have a right to be free. On the contrary, every restriction of freedom must be lawful, necessary, proportionate, and convincingly justified.
The historical significance of the United States Bill of Rights lay precisely in defining the rights of individuals in their relationship with the newly established government and in placing limits upon that government. The first ten amendments protected freedom of speech, religion, the press, and assembly, guaranteed due process of law, and reserved to the people and the states those powers not delegated to the federal government.
In the Republic of Free Citizens, the state is not the source of freedom.
It is its guardian.
The Second Principle
Responsibility is inseparable from freedom
Freedom without responsibility can become arbitrary licence.
At the same time, responsibility without freedom becomes a form of subordination, in which a person is held accountable for decisions they did not make and for rules they had no opportunity to influence.
A mature society combines freedom of choice with a willingness to accept the consequences of that choice.
A free citizen has the right to act, create, make mistakes, reconsider decisions, and choose their own path. Yet that citizen must also honour their commitments, respect the freedom of others, and accept responsibility for harm they cause.
Responsibility does not negate freedom.
It makes freedom possible.
It is from this union that social trust emerges: the belief that individuals, organisations, and institutions will follow the rules not only out of fear of punishment, but also out of a sense of duty.
The Third Principle
Private property safeguards individual independence
Property rights are the material extension of freedom.
A person must have the right to own the fruits of their labour, to save, invest, manage their assets, establish enterprises, and pass property on to future generations.
Where property is insecure, freedom quickly becomes merely declarative.
No one can be truly independent if the state, a public official, a monopoly, or a more powerful private actor can arbitrarily deprive them of the results of their work.
The European human rights system recognises the right of natural and legal persons to the peaceful enjoyment of their possessions. Deprivation of property is permissible only under conditions established by law, in the public interest, and with a fair balance between that interest and the rights of the owner.
Protecting property does not mean denying the public interest.
It means that the public interest must never become a justification for arbitrariness.
Property rights must be clear, predictable, and equally protected for everyone.
The Fourth Principle
Voluntary agreement is stronger than coercion
People cooperate most effectively when they enter into relationships voluntarily, understand the terms, and recognise their mutual obligations.
A contract turns freedom into a practical form of cooperation.
It allows people to exchange goods, services, knowledge, labour, and resources without requiring one party to submit to another.
Coercion may sometimes be necessary to stop violence, fraud, or violations of the rights of others. It must not, however, become the normal method of organising economic and social life.
The role of the state is not to replace the will of the parties or dictate every term of their agreement.
Its role is to ensure fair rules, genuine consent, protection of the weaker party against abuse, and the enforceability of lawful obligations.
Where contracts are not honoured, trust disappears.
And without trust, there can be neither a free market nor a responsible society.
The Fifth Principle
Competition drives development and protects society from monopoly
No individual, organisation, or public institution possesses complete knowledge or an automatic claim to infallibility.
Competition allows society to compare different approaches, identify mistakes, and choose better solutions.
It encourages businesses to improve their goods and services, teachers to refine their methods, doctors to strengthen professional standards, universities to develop their programmes, and communities to raise the quality of governance.
Competition is necessary not only in business.
It is equally important in the realm of ideas, education, science, media, civic initiatives, and professional self-government.
When a single institution gains the exclusive power to set the rules, control entry into a profession, distribute resources, and assess its own performance, the danger of a closed monopoly arises.
Competition does not guarantee that mistakes will never be made.
It creates the possibility of correcting them.
The Sixth Principle
Decisions should be made as close to the individual as possible
An individual understands their own needs better than a distant central official.
A family knows the needs of its members better than the state.
A local community understands local conditions, while a region understands the particular circumstances of its territory.
Decisions should therefore be made at the level closest to the individual that is capable of carrying out the relevant task effectively.
This is the principle of subsidiarity.
The central government should assume only those responsibilities that cannot be properly fulfilled by the individual, the family, the local community, a professional association, or the region.
The Swiss model demonstrates how this principle can function institutionally. Power is distributed among the Confederation, the cantons, and the municipalities, while the federal level performs primarily those functions expressly assigned to it under the constitutional order. Considerable autonomy at lower levels is combined with direct citizen participation in decision-making.
Subsidiarity is not a sign of a weak state.
It is a way of making public authority closer to the people, more accountable, and better adapted to their actual needs.
The Seventh Principle
Human capital is the Republic’s greatest wealth
Natural resources may be depleted.
Businesses may lose their markets.
Technologies may become obsolete.
The only source of development capable of continually renewing and multiplying itself is the human being.
Knowledge.
Health.
Professional skill.
Creativity.
Reputation.
The ability to accept responsibility, cooperate with others, and create new value.
Public and social institutions should therefore be judged by one central criterion:
Do they help individuals realise and fulfil their potential?
Education should develop the ability to think, not merely reproduce information.
Healthcare should help people preserve their health and capacity to work.
The labour market should provide opportunities for people to apply their abilities.
The justice system should protect them from violence and arbitrariness.
The economy should create space for work, creativity, enterprise, and innovation.
Institutions do not exist for their own sake.
They exist for human development.
The Eighth Principle
Reputation is the social capital of freedom
In a system based primarily on coercion, fear becomes the main regulator of behaviour.
In a free society, trust plays a far greater role.
That is why reputation is one of the most valuable assets possessed by an individual, a business, a community, a professional association, or a public institution.
Reputation cannot be established by law, proclaimed by decree, or permanently purchased through advertising.
It is built through consistent conduct.
Keeping one’s word.
Professionalism.
Honesty.
A willingness to acknowledge mistakes and accept responsibility for decisions.
High levels of trust reduce the need for excessive supervision, complicated inspections, and constant coercion.
Low levels of trust, by contrast, force society to spend ever greater resources protecting itself from deception, corruption, and the failure to honour obligations.
The Republic of Free Citizens should not manage reputations.
It should create conditions in which honesty and responsibility have genuine social value.
The Ninth Principle
Justice exists to protect the individual, not those in power
The courts must not become instruments of political influence, administrative pressure, or corporate protection.
Justice exists to defend life, freedom, property, contractual rights, honour, and human dignity.
Judicial independence is not a privilege granted to judges.
It is a guarantee for every person who may one day stand alone against the state, a more powerful private party, or a social majority.
The law must apply equally to the citizen, the public official, the entrepreneur, the politician, and the public institution.
Where the law is applied selectively, justice becomes an instrument of power.
Where judicial decisions depend on political convenience, the individual loses the final mechanism of protection against arbitrariness.
A fair court must be independent, professional, accessible, impartial, and capable of ensuring that its judgments are enforced.
Without this, all other rights remain promises.
The Tenth Principle
Solidarity begins with personal responsibility and mutual support
A society cannot be free if it leaves a person alone in the face of hardship, illness, disability, old age, or the consequences of disaster.
Yet solidarity should not be reduced solely to the state redistribution of resources.
Its first natural environment is the family.
Then come the local community, neighbours, professional networks, charitable organisations, volunteer associations, and other forms of voluntary mutual support.
The state should assist individuals where lower levels are objectively unable to provide the necessary help.
At the same time, it should not displace the family, the community, or civil society, nor should it condition people to permanent dependence on public officials.
Solidarity should help restore independence, not take it away.
A genuine social policy does more than compensate for loss.
It gives people the opportunity to regain control over their own lives.
The Eleventh Principle
Freedom must be capable of defending itself
Peace does not exist automatically.
Freedom without the capacity for self-defence can become easy prey for an aggressor.
An individual, a business, a local community, or even a region cannot independently provide for the defence of the country. Protecting the Republic against external aggression is therefore one of the central and unconditional responsibilities of the national government.
Modern security, however, extends far beyond the armed forces.
Finland’s model of comprehensive security is based on cooperation among public authorities, businesses, civil society organisations, and citizens to preserve the vital functions of society under all circumstances. Crisis preparedness is not the responsibility of the military alone, but of society as a whole.
Ukraine’s model of defence should likewise combine:
a professional military core;
a trained reserve;
a strong defence industry;
technological superiority;
resilient infrastructure;
a developed civil defence system;
responsible citizen participation.
Strong defence is not required to glorify war.
It is required to deter aggression, preserve peace, and protect freedom.
The Twelfth Principle
A strong Republic understands the limits of its power
A state becomes weak not only when it fails to perform its duties.
It also becomes weak when it attempts to control everything.
When the central government seeks simultaneously to manage enterprises, determine the boundaries of public debate, regulate every profession, distribute all resources, and make decisions on behalf of citizens, it loses the ability to perform its essential responsibilities well.
The Republic should not raise children in place of their parents.
It should not teach in place of teachers.
It should not treat patients in place of doctors.
It should not establish and maintain enterprises merely because it distrusts entrepreneurs.
It should not determine a person’s goals in life.
Its mission is different, and far more demanding:
to protect rights and freedoms;
to uphold the rule of law;
to safeguard property;
to ensure the enforcement of contracts;
to maintain a fair justice system;
to defend the country against external aggression;
to provide assistance where the individual, the community, or the region is objectively unable to cope alone.
Limited government does not mean an inactive state.
On the contrary, it means a state that clearly understands its responsibilities, possesses the resources needed to fulfil them, and does not waste its strength doing what citizens are capable of doing themselves.
The strength of a state is not measured by the number of spheres it controls.
It is measured by the quality with which it performs the functions for which the state is genuinely necessary.
The Republican Thesis
A free Republic is built not around the machinery of the state, but around the individual.
Its foundation consists of twelve interrelated principles:
freedom;
responsibility;
private property;
voluntary agreement;
competition;
subsidiarity;
human capital;
reputation;
fair justice;
solidarity;
national security;
limited government.
None of these principles can fully exist in isolation.
Freedom without responsibility risks becoming arbitrary licence.
Property without justice remains insecure.
Competition without fair rules can turn into the power of monopolies.
Solidarity without personal responsibility can create dependency.
Security without limits on power can become a justification for authoritarianism.
And a limited state without the capacity to protect rights and freedom becomes weakness.
It is the interaction of these principles that creates a coherent model of the Republic.
A Constitution begins with a worldview
Constitutions can be rewritten.
Governments can change.
Parliaments can be re-elected.
But without a clear understanding of fundamental principles, every new political system risks reproducing old mistakes in a different form.
A genuine constitutional debate should therefore not begin with the question of who should receive more power.
It should begin with a different question:
What kind of individual, what kind of society, and what kind of state do we seek to build?
My answer is that Ukraine should build a Republic in which the individual is not a resource of the state, a subordinate of an official, or an object of political management.
The individual is a free citizen.
The state serves that citizen’s freedom, protects their rights, and acts within the limits established by the Constitution.
These twelve principles are not a finished constitutional text.
They are the philosophical foundation upon which such a text can be built.
I offer them not as dogma, but as the basis for a serious national conversation.
Together, we must determine:
where the limits of state power should lie;
which powers should belong to local communities;
how genuine protection of property can be ensured;
how freedom can be reconciled with solidarity;
how an independent justice system can be built;
how the state can be limited in its interference while remaining strong in the performance of its essential responsibilities.
The Constitution of the Republic of Free Citizens does not begin with ready-made answers.
It begins with the willingness of Ukrainians to agree responsibly on the rules of their shared future.
Yurii Miroshnychenko