Spotlight on:

“Peace and Justice”

Overview • Policies • People • Government • Economy • Rank • Trend • Cards

The Most Serene Republic of TheElement is a titanic, safe nation, ruled by Herman Smith with a fair hand, and remarkable for its state-planned economy, irreverence towards religion, and stringent health and safety legislation. The democratic population of 10.492 billion TheElementians love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.

The large, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Administration, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Lamaville. The average income tax rate is 50.6%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The large but sluggish TheElementian economy, worth 264 trillion dollars a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is a slick, highly efficient black market in Basket Weaving, Arms Manufacturing, Uranium Mining, and Beef-Based Agriculture. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is 25,186 dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The opposition leader's credibility has been undermined by constant attention drawn to a dodgy toupee, all government facilities are built in the subterranean citadel of Lamaville, Rastafarian has been named as TheElement's national religion, and Herman Smith has just been declared ruler of TheElement in an international press conference. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. TheElement's national animal is the lion, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Rastafarian.

TheElement is ranked 293,247^th in the world and 9^th in Elements for Most Developed, scoring 46.72 on the Human Development Index.