NationStates Jolt Archive

If we're here it's because we've all got our ideas on how a country should be ran. However, let's take it a step further : what if you could make up your ideal country?

Go nuts. Is it an island? On which continent is it? Is it a Singapore-like city-state or a huge almost-continent major world civilization like India? What's the population like? What's the regime? The economy? Go over everything you like : history, culture, politics, geography, education, EVERYTHING. Go into detail. I'd love to see what your ideas are.

I've got my own, and it's pretty well thought-out, but I'll wait a couple days to see what ideas people post before I add mine.

Ideal country, eh.

Well, then, here you go.

The country in question is a very large area with areas of intense urbanisation that punctuate otherwise nearly empty countryside, wit each city the regional capital, and being the center of economy for each region and its subserviant townships.

The smaller towns are all run in a pure democracy town-hall meeting. They do elect leaders to handle organization twice a year, with no limits on terms, with the actual power and legislative bit in the town hall meetings.

The cities have it a bit more complicated, with a MUCH larger population. Each city is divided into buroughs, areas with populations just about equal. These burroughs have their own meetings, then decide on who to send to represent them on the city council, whenever the council needs to meet.

The city council chooses people to be the Mayor, Treasurer, Police Commisioner, and such on four year terms. These people cannot vote on the city council with the exception of the Mayor, who votes in case of a tie. The Council has the legislative powers for the city.

For each region, lets say Provence, the national government sends a Governer. The qualifications for Governer are that he or she must have served as a Mayor in another provence, and that he or she cannot govern his home provence.

Each township and burrough sends on representative to the Provencial Council, which is the effective Legislature for the province. The Provencial Council also nominates one member of the National Council, but that person cannot be serving in another office.

The National Government is a monarchy, with a monarch with absolute power, but with most of it vested in the Constitution, and divides most of the remainder amoung the National Council. The Monarchy chooses its head of state from amoung the Royal Family. Any legitamate member of the family who was related to a King or the King's immediate family by blood within the past four generations can be considered to become King. The person is actually chosen by the Council.

The Royal Family cannot marry nobility, what of it exists in the nation aside from them. They must, by the constitution, marry a commoner.

There are nobles out there, that technically own the lands, but instead relegate themselves to the position of quiet landowners and landlords when it comes to politics and economics, although each township and city technically has a count and a duke in charge of 'em, respectivly.

Various manor-houses, instead of townships, also dot the countryside, with a lord that wishes to work hands on with his tenants holds the land in a semi-fuedal style. In a way, the manor houses often offers more freedom than townships or the cities do, as all you have to do is convince the lord that he should do what you suggest.

The people of the nation are all from the same ethnic background, and all believe in the same religion - albiet with different flavors, similar to Protestant Christianity. It is a monotheistic relgion that replaced a previous polytheistic easily by saying that one god, being perfect, can be in multiple places and once and take on different appearances to mortals.

The head of this church is technically the King, but has been given to the High Priest of the religion for the past 340 years, or since the last religious war.

My country would b ruled soley be me, and a group of cronies that agreed with every word I said.
Anyone who disagrees dies, simple.
Military service is compulsory from the age of 14 until 20, then you are either placed on stand by until your 60, or offered a permanent job in the military until your 40.
Of course if your older than 40 and high ranking you can stay until your senile.
Everyone must own a dangerous animal like a tiger, or lion, this will reduce crime, and keep the family on their toes, from getting complacent.
Fat people are banned from society, until their skinny, fat camps will be set up for these lazy indulgent pigs.
Everyone has to get up at 6, except me, no lazy indulgent people allowed in my country.
All religon banned, but you can sing my praises if you like.
All men and women have to learn a fighting skill and be judged competent at it by the age of 20, no pussies in my country!
Academic learning encouraged, but no socialism of any sort allowed under pain of death.
All criminals to be killed, publically with a guillotine, no excuse.
No pollution allowed, any means of transport must be used with a means that doesnt hurt the enviroment, same goes for factorys.
Holidays, wenching and drinking encouraged once a month for three days.

My ideal country is an island, not too big, not too small.
In the centre of the island lies one big city, surrounded by mountains. It is the capital of the island, where the government, university and national library are located.

The government is made up of seven ministers, who govern for seven years. They are elected from the seven regions the island is divided in. After their seven years of governing, they will remain in the government as advisors to the new ministers for 14 years.
The ministers are controlled by a parliament made up out of 150 representatives elected in a national election. There will be a multi-party (or whatever the word for that is) system with a few big parties and a lot of small ones. Ministers are not allowed membership or affiliation to any of these parties before, during or after their governing, for they should be independant. There is also no chance for them to ever be reëlected and they will be payed after their 21 years of service until the day they die, just so they are objective when governing. If they leave a spouse, pensions will be provided.
The ministers do not have any particular field of operation, like ours do. Instead they all decide together how they think things should be done. In doing so, they will look after the interests of their region.
The parliament has to approve every law by voting in favor of it by at least 51%. If they do not do this, the law is thrown away with the rest of the junk.
Civil rights are extensive and made permanent in the constitution. These civil rights include gay marriage, smoking marihuana, abortion (within the first three months of pregnancy), euthanasia, free healthcare, right to a job, insurance when you are physically unable to work, freedom of speach, freedom of religion, freedom of press, equality in its most extreme form, the right for children to have possessions, the right to free education, the right to not be discriminated, the right to live in a weapon free society, the right to vote, the right to demonstrate, the right to form groups (as in political parties, churches), the right for animals to live a free life (as in not being owned by humans), the right for the environment to prosper and last but not least, the right to be creative. I may of course have forgotten a right or two, but I won't when I write the constitution, don't worry. :)
The constitution can be changed, but only by adding things to them. Things that are added may not be in conflict with the previously stated rights.

The university is the place where every young citizen spends four years or more, from when they're 18, to study the subject they like. Every citizen has a right to go there and learn, regardless of how they did in school before that. Because education is a constitutional right, there are also a lot of adults studying (again).

The national library holds a copy of every published book ever and is also the place where the countries registers are. This way, everyone can look up their ancesters when they pick up their weekly books :)

There is free trade in the country, though marketing is strictly regulated because people hate it. Businesses are small.

Taxes are probably high, because of the funding for the insurance etcetera. But the people don't complain about it, beause they all get a good pension, insurance, education and healthcare system for it.

There is no war.

Trials are being held by a local court made out of the citizens of the town concerned. The highest punishment one can recieve here is being banned. The government makes a record of every banning and when a person recieves their third banning, the government takes over and applies the correct punishment.

Overall, people are happy and take good care of each other.

My country is large and filled with natural resources. It has many large cities as well as many large farms to feed the people. My nation is ruled by an emperor and his advisors, the emporer is not powerful enough to outvote all of these advisors but is powerful enough if they disagree. The advisors are experts in their fields, such as economics, military, technology/engineering, sociology and their positions are meant to give expert advice about one or two aspects of society. The advisors are picked through their ability, while the emperor is picked by the previous emperor and his advisors. My nation has a strong military and a strong police force. It has a great education system that focuses mainly on practical/semi-practical fields, such as those for people who wish to work in government, or industry. The nation has one dominant religion that is affiliated with the state, and people must believe in it and follow all of its rules as if they are state laws. There are censors on everything making sure most things would not be bad for children. People are taught the psychology of parenting by the state as everyone is asked to produce offspring but not forced to produce. Most industry is controlled by the government and although no one is incredibly rich, the incredibly poor do not either due to rehabilitation programs and/or execution, as well there are incentives for a good job. My nation is focused on being the most powerful and the people believe that man is meant to serve not to master anything and this belief is even asked of the rulers who have to show deference the the one god of the state church. Ultimately, everyone works hard and society is constantly trying to improve upon itself.

Large country, lots of natural resources, cool climate, lots of roads, extremely rich. and 100% of people there are conservative.

it would be about 800 people in the entire country. there would be no money, i mean as if it didn't exist in the country, not as if the country was very poor. the country would be very isolationalist. it would be about 90 square kilometers, except not in a square shape or a circle shape, probably almost rectanglar shape would be good, maybe 8 by 12 kilometers, which is about enough land so that everyone could have twenty eight acres if it was divided up equally, which it wouldn't be. people wouldn't be allowed to own anything, and the country would be regarded as a whole, so rather than people owning it, the country owns it. the government(the whole of the people) would allow people to build there house on a certian place. the major way of getting food would be hunting fishing and farming. there would be two large ponds, with a kindof small river connecting them. lots of fish would be in the ponds. most of the land would be forest, but it would be up north, so it'd probably be more like tundra, so a bush-forest thingy whatchamacally. most likely, no electricity. the government would never hide anything from the people. actually it'd be opposite of normal, they would make shure people know certian things, because if everyone knows everything, then they all develope the same opinions about it. i would right more but now i'm going to go look in an encyclopedia for 90 square kilometers unclaimed land...

My ideal country is my NS country. ;)

My ideal country is a cross between Australia and Britan. Something large and scarcly populated, like Australia. But with British people living in it.

My ideal country is a cross between Australia and Britan. Something large and scarcly populated, like Australia. But with British people living in it.

I approve. But minus the chavs/neds, right? and a little bit more cold. Let's make this happen, people.


My ideal country is a cross between Canada and Japan. Which makes me feel boring because people are writing huge things about their ideal country. But that's it. Canadian temperature/people, and Japanese cities.

My ideal country would be an island, rather small. Around 3 million inhabitants, two or three larger cities and larger, barely populated rural areas.
It would be split in several provinces, maybe 6 or so, whatever is practical. These provinces would have their provincial governments, a groupd of people rather than just one governor. These groups would decide all local issues, such as spending their funds, infratructure, schooling (although the curriculum would be decided by the central government), cultural issues, etc. the members of these local governments get directly elected every 2 years, nobobdy can do more than 2 consecutive terms, but there is no limit on how many terms anybody can do overall.
The central government gets elected for 6 years, again a group of several people. This group of people will then elect the head of state and the ministers from among them. The ministers get elected for 3 years, the head of state for 1 year. There are no political parties, people can only be elected directly.

The climate would be maritime, with no harsh winters or hot summers and the island will have a lot of rainfall.
The government will have an interest of giving the population the best education available, making the country a center for teaching and research.
The main economical sectors will be agriculture (organic largely), tourism, IT services and production and maybe a nice bit of movie industry that can make use of the fantastic landscape.

The country will be inoffensive, largely neutral with a small military but the best training and equipment, moderately rich and peaceful.
All political freedoms are guaranteed by the government, social issues are high priority, but taxes remain acceptable as the government uses other sources of income, staging cultural festivals and massive tourist attractions.

Yes, I think that's about the country I would want to live in.

My ideal country? Rather simple really.

I'd want it to be a small nation, roughly the size of, say, Texas. It would have a good balance of urban and rural areas, with a comfortable climate year-round.

It would be a truely free nation. No civil or political right would be curtailed, and yet people would live in peace. There would be a parliament of two hundred individuals, and a court with 7 individuals. All people have a say in politics.

Emphasis would be less on less on economy and military, but both would be strong in their own sense. Emphasis would mainly be placed upon education and medical research.

Yeah...that would be fun!

Ideal country, eh.

Well, then, here you go.

The country in question is a very large area with areas of intense urbanisation that punctuate otherwise nearly empty countryside, wit each city the regional capital, and being the center of economy for each region and its subserviant townships.

The smaller towns are all run in a pure democracy town-hall meeting. They do elect leaders to handle organization twice a year, with no limits on terms, with the actual power and legislative bit in the town hall meetings.

The cities have it a bit more complicated, with a MUCH larger population. Each city is divided into buroughs, areas with populations just about equal. These burroughs have their own meetings, then decide on who to send to represent them on the city council, whenever the council needs to meet.

The city council chooses people to be the Mayor, Treasurer, Police Commisioner, and such on four year terms. These people cannot vote on the city council with the exception of the Mayor, who votes in case of a tie. The Council has the legislative powers for the city.

For each region, lets say Provence, the national government sends a Governer. The qualifications for Governer are that he or she must have served as a Mayor in another provence, and that he or she cannot govern his home provence.

Each township and burrough sends on representative to the Provencial Council, which is the effective Legislature for the province. The Provencial Council also nominates one member of the National Council, but that person cannot be serving in another office.

The National Government is a monarchy, with a monarch with absolute power, but with most of it vested in the Constitution, and divides most of the remainder amoung the National Council. The Monarchy chooses its head of state from amoung the Royal Family. Any legitamate member of the family who was related to a King or the King's immediate family by blood within the past four generations can be considered to become King. The person is actually chosen by the Council.

The Royal Family cannot marry nobility, what of it exists in the nation aside from them. They must, by the constitution, marry a commoner.

There are nobles out there, that technically own the lands, but instead relegate themselves to the position of quiet landowners and landlords when it comes to politics and economics, although each township and city technically has a count and a duke in charge of 'em, respectivly.

Various manor-houses, instead of townships, also dot the countryside, with a lord that wishes to work hands on with his tenants holds the land in a semi-fuedal style. In a way, the manor houses often offers more freedom than townships or the cities do, as all you have to do is convince the lord that he should do what you suggest.

The people of the nation are all from the same ethnic background, and all believe in the same religion - albiet with different flavors, similar to Protestant Christianity. It is a monotheistic relgion that replaced a previous polytheistic easily by saying that one god, being perfect, can be in multiple places and once and take on different appearances to mortals.

The head of this church is technically the King, but has been given to the High Priest of the religion for the past 340 years, or since the last religious war.


Wow, this is remarkablely similar to my own country here on Nation States, with a few exceptions:
1.The people are still polytheistic. Each major city has it's own patron god or goddess. Other minor gods are found throughout the country.
2.No Nobility.
3.The leader of each city is elected by the people for life...as is the head of the federal government.
4.There is a parliament-like body called the High Council, made up of the city leaders.
5.The city leaders and head of the federal governemnt appoint all the people under them. There are no elections after the city leaders and head of the F.G. are elected.
6.Strict laws on who can be elected, including multiple written tests(administered by the said religious organization).
7.City leaders must marry the head of the F.G., but cannot reproduce.
8.Elected officials can easily be executed. If the head of the F.G. is ever executed or killed, all elected officials are executed as well, and new elections are held.

It would be a Cuba-sized island in the Carribean with loads of sexy sexy people. That's all you really need to know :D

My country is called The Kingdom Of The States Of England.

It includes the island of Britian, including Ireland, all of France, parts of Spain, Iceland, Greenland, the island of Sicaly (sp?), and Australia.

It is a liberal kingdom, where I rule.

A small island with relatively low urbanization but not really rural and with an anarcho-communist society.

Australia obviously, but with less desert, less distance, better health care, and an end to this drought. Less people might be nice, too.

It would need a completely different government, maybe with term limits so that the same politician can't hog the top spot forever and ever, if he/she keeps getting elected. Possibly seperated from the monarchy altogether.

And a sci-fi channel! Preferably free, but I don't mind if it is added to the PayTV list, just so long as we get one.

...

Okay, and Farscape to not be cancelled anymore. But maybe that's stretching it a bit. :rolleyes:

Hmm.

So far a lot of people in this thread want their country run by a council instead of a single person, and want strong regional/local governments.

I wonder why that is? (Open question)

Councils tend to be more balanced and also can have greater expertise then a single person, especially if the council is selected for their expertise. A single ruler is too likely to go crazy and kill everything, a council has to share too much power and differing ideas can balance each other out, however, a council does not have to care about the average citizen either and can make iffy decisions without having to worry about their careers thus allowing better long term decision making. Strong regional governments can alleviate the problems of centralization by creating laws that make sense for the particular region and by having a local level that does not have as much potential for corruption or ability to do harm.

My ideal country would be an island (guarded by the most extensive navy in the land--kind of like imperial Britain), with a medium-sized population, located mostly in various cities along the coast. The government would be small, efficient and extremely democratic. Income tax would be abolished, and a national sales tax would be implemented (the "fair-tax" if you are familiar with it). The government, while small would be centralized (federal) due to the relatively small size of the island. Furthermore, the state would generally stay out of the private lives of its citizens, however legistlation on issues such as abortion and gay marriage could be passed with a popular vote. All government funding would go towards education (it would be public--including the collegiate level), the military, law & order and a bit towards the environment. Healthcare and hospice would be privatized, state-run social security and most welfare would be abolished as well as nearly all subsidies. Free-market capitalism would be implemented (no tariffs--no matter the country, regulations only on anti-monopolization, pooling, trust corps and certain reguations on environmental protection and minium wages--oh and absolutely no corporate welfare!). Our foreign policy would be non-interventionist (militarily prepared, but no unneccessary action). We would have strong diplomatic ties with as many countries as possible and work together to solve large-scale problems (such as global warming and the energy situation). The country would be led by a bicameral congress, include a judiciary led by a Supreme Court, and an executive branch led by the president. The electoral college would be abolished, and popular vote would determine the presidential leader (besides there are no states anyway).

Sounds good, eh? ;)

My ideal country would have the cleanness of Singapore, the absence of corruption of Finland, the economic system of Pinochet's Chile, the social policies of the Netherlands, and the foreign policy of Switzerland.

id like a carribean island of about 100,000 people. the economy would be dedicated to secure banking and gambling.

i would institute land reform and offer low cost loans to the public for housing and to start small businesses.

taxes would be low due to foreign investments and fees.

education would be free through university with out of country scholarships available for those who qualify.

basic healthcare would be free and a fund would be used to pay for the fancier stuff that is only available in bigger countries.