Overview

Roborian is a sizeable, largely prosperous nation, a democratic, Constitutional (Chartered) Republic with universal adult suffrage and a free-market economy. The nation bears host to a generally cheerful, integrous, and religious people, with the overall size and extent of government relatively small.

A free-market nation, Roborian has moderately significant wealth gaps, but is fairly well-to-do, exceeding global averages in income for both the top and bottom deciles. Poverty is present, but fairly low, with both taxes and services fairly small-public spending makes up only 9.2% of the nation's GDP. Spirituality is the single largest line-item at just over a quarter of the federal budget, spending in that category going to religious education, some indirect welfare, and free government-provided marriage counseling services. Spending on education marks approximately one-sixth of the budget, with industry, environmental and public health spending all noticeable, but very little directed to federal welfare programs, and even less to law enforcement.

The generation of even the relatively low revenue required for the government would exceed the means of the nation's extremely low tax rate, sitting, between income and VAT taxes, at an estimated 4.59%, among the lowest in the developed world. The slack is picked up by alternative means of revenue, including a progressive estate tax imposed on large inheritances, protective tariffs on agricultural products, and the National Lottery, an institution that has become quite popular, to the joy of government bookkeepers and the dismay of some religious leaders and politicians, arguing that the revenue arises from either immoral or regressive practices, respectively.

Helped in part by such tariffs, but far more so by its sweeping tracts of arable land and largely rural populace, Roborian is an agricultural powerhouse, farms and ranches throughout the nation producing vastly more food than is necessary for the populace, and turning the surplus to export. Fishing, too, is a common pasttime in the nation, and a major industry both off of the nation's coasts, and in the nation's rivers, contributing to the significant food glut. The economy is fairly broadly diversified, headed by agriculture and foodstuffs above a wide-ranging commercial sector of high and low-tech consumer goods, finally rounded out by robust, if not dominant, mining, logging, and manufacturing industries.

The nation's armed forces are relatively small, with Defense spending coming in at just over 1.8% of GDP, and primarily protectively postured, expenditure concentrated in equipment before personnel, and personnel before operations. Expeditionary capability is present, but largely minimal, and of the three branches, the Army is the most neglected, of only tertiary use for an island nation with few commitments beyond its borders. Defense spending is heavily focused on just that, defense. SAM and AShM coastal launchers and bunkers are fairly well-distributed about the nation, as are fortifications under slow construction, backed by a significant Air Force, and small Navy built heavily around picket submarines with the support of coastal patrol vessels, with no aircraft carriers or major surface combatants in operation. Recent years have seen increased political debate over the position of the military in Roborianos society, seeing the fragmentation of consensus as opposing sides alternatively push for a stronger, more interventionist force, or disarmament down to a more minimal level.

Crime within Roborian has become a rising problem in recent years, including a hefty murder rate, with the nation's minimal police forces and light sentencing policies perhaps partially to blame. A mere half-percent of federal spending is dedicated to law enforcement, with citizen self-policing and self-defense more common, especially in rural areas, and firearm ownership extremely widespread, increasingly among women. Corporal punishment is present within the legal code and fairly common for various offenses, designed to be used in place of lengthy, and expensive, jail sentences. Capital punishment, however, has been abolished by legislative action.

The nation's weather, and environment, are both fairly mediocre, with governmental efforts present to protect the environment, including a fairly robust series of national parks, but not strongly backed, industry or homesteaders often able to take priority. Weather generally tends to be fairly overcast and grey, humid, and wet, with rainy springs and summers, and fairly mild but very snowy winters, summers rising to a fairly high temperature at peak once the weather clears. Of the various sectors of the Roborianos economy, tourism is perhaps the weakest, a factor largely of uninspiring weather conditions and lack of particularly international popular destinations, though worries over crime rate do not help. Most tourism consists of intranational travel by Roborinians, mostly visiting well-maintained historic sites, including popular reenactments of earlier times, particularly 'Cowboy Days'.

Socially, the nation is highly religious, partaking of the Christian faith, and laws reflecting that piety are present. Elective abortion is illegal, as is divorce-prosecuted under contract law, pornography-including restrictions on salacious comment in film and television, extramarital and premarital coital relations, homosexual activity, and recreational drugs, including alcohol, the legislation representing a tightly-regulated moral aspect of society. Outside of such matters, however, in a perhaps arguably contradictory manner, the government is relatively libertarian. A right to bear arms is established in the Charter, and extends to military-grade firearms, as well as a right to carry concealed, and sell and purchase without background checks. Property and privacy rights are both firmly secured, extending to limitations on the government including the prohibition of eminent domain and various types of electronic surveillance. While media may be censored on grounds of 'obscene' content, opinion content is strongly protected from censorship by Charter right, with newspapers, in addition to such protection, allowed to operate tax-exempt in a manner similar to churches. In matters of faith, religious tolerance-if not equal treatment-in law is guaranteed, as is freedom of worship, save in cases of violence or coercion in the same.

Politically, the nation has a uniquely constructed executive branch in the form of a plural executive, the top two vote-getters by a national ranked-choice ballot each taking office as Co-Executive. Each holds only partial, equal power and balances out against the other in a semi-competitive, semi-cooperative, unique system. That each holds possession of a veto is a double check on the legislature, enhancing the highly deliberative aspects of the government, in a system established by the Charter some centuries earlier, and not easily conducive to dramatic change.The legislature, for its part, is tricameral. One chamber is elected by popular vote nationwide, irrespective of region, the second contains elected officials by province by popular vote and population total, and the members of the third are elected by the elected officials within that province rather than the citizenry directly. All legislation must pass all three chambers, and gain the signature of each executive, to pass. The nation's judiciary lacks the power of judicial review, and instead merely tries cases according to the law, and thus can be considered fairly weak. Appointments are collaboratively made by the plural executive, and confirmed by majority in all three chambers, sometimes leading to vacancies and overworked judges in periods of political discord.