2.3 Liberty

Classical liberalism without compromise

VoTa upholds classical liberalism without compromise. Individual liberty is the default: people control their bodies, labour, property, associations, beliefs, and peaceful dealings with others. The State exists to protect that liberty through universal laws, not to direct peaceful lives or grant officials discretionary power over them.

Citizenship is a voluntary contract

The essential mechanism is that citizenship is a voluntary contract. A person chooses whether to become a citizen and, by doing so, accepts the constitution together with its rights, taxes, public services, benefits, and obligations. These arrangements are not imposed merely because someone lives within the territory. A person who does not accept the contract may remain a non-citizen while retaining the property rights, personal liberty, and protection of universal law owed to every person.

Consent must be genuine and informed, and a citizen may leave subject only to obligations already undertaken voluntarily. The State remains bound by the constitution when dealing with citizens and non-citizens alike. Neither consent to citizenship nor receipt of a public service gives it an open-ended authority to impose terms which the constitution does not permit.

Collective institutions remain compatible with liberty

VoTa can therefore retain a State, taxation, public services, and a UBI without compromising its classical-liberal foundation. Citizens have consented to that institutional package rather than having it imposed upon them, while the Non-Aggression Principle constrains what the State may do and the Non-Discrimination Principle prevents it from granting privileges or imposing targeted burdens. VoTa combines collective institutions with individual consent instead of treating one as a reason to abandon the other.