NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: I'm back, and I'm resetting everything about this nation. Henceforth, this is the only valid info regarding this country.

Factbook: Alemannic Federation of Grimmeberg
OOC: I use the borders of RL countries and RL political systems as references.

Location, Population, and Land Area:
The Alemannic Federation occupies a large portion of central Europe, controlling Germany, Austria, Northern Croatia, and East Prussia at this point. However, planned military campaigns aim to bring Belorussia, Scandinavia, the Balkans, Hungary, Romania, and Poland into the Federation. The projected land area has an estimated 515 million people within it, but the current borders of the Federation contain only about 298 million people.

Government:
The Federation is governed by a unicameral Senate, a directly elected Chancellor, and a semi-dictatorial Captain-General. The Court system is similar to the U.S. court system.

Executive Branch: The top of the chain of command in this branch of government is the Chancellor.
The Chancellor is effectively the leader of the Federation. There is an Electoral College system, with the number of popular votes in each province affecting the number of electoral votes each district is worth. In the event of a tie in electoral votes, popular votes are also used to break any ties. Elections are held every 5 years. Anyone seeking to be Chancellor must be at least 40 years old, a born citizen of one of the Federal Provinces, and cannot have committed any Federal Offenses. The Chancellor can veto measures passed by Parliament, but the veto can be overridden.
The Prime Minister serves effectively as Vice-Chancellor and as the Speaker for Parliament. They are generally from the party that controls Parliament (the Prime Minister does not have to be a representative, though) at the time. Therefore, the Prime Minister often also changes with Parliamentary elections, though not always. The requirements for Prime Minister are the as same for Chancellor, as the Prime Minister becomes Chancellor should the Chancellor die in office, until the next election.
At the Provincial Level, the Elector is the head of the Executive branch. They also serve as the Chief of Police for their respective Provinces. A Elector must be a citizen for at least 5 years, cannot have committed any Federal Offenses, and must be at least 28 years old. The Elector can veto measures the same way the Chancellor can.

Legislative Branch: The main legislative body in the Federation is the Senate. It is comprised of 105 Senators, 5 from elected from each Province. All are required to be registered to vote, be at least 32 years old, a citizen for at least 8 years, and must not have committed any Federal Offenses. All laws are voted on by the Senate, and require 51% of the vote to pass. If a law passed by the Senate is vetoed by the Chancellor, then 2/3 of Senate must approve to override the veto.
On the Provincial level, the legislative branch is embodied by the Provincial Diet. Each has between 24-60 Congressmen, who are elected by residents of the Province. They function the same way as the Senate does, but laws passed by a Diet only apply within that Province. The overriding of a Elector's veto is handled the same way a Chancellor’s veto is.

Judicial Branch: The Supreme Court presides over the highest cases: impeachment cases or appeals that make it to the Supreme Court. There are 11 Justices on the Supreme Court: 10 Justices and 1 Chief Justice, who presides over the Court. They are appointed by Parliament, but must be approved by 2/3 of Parliament. If the Chancellor disapproves, he can veto their application the same way he would a law, but that veto can be overridden the same way. The minimum requirements are that a Justice must be 40 years old, cannot have committed any Federal Offenses, and must have a College Degree in Law sufficient to practice law.
The District Circuit Court serves as the regular court for a District and tries most cases. Juries are made up of 12 people who are chosen based on who is most likely to be the least biased one way or another in a case. Juries change on a case by case basis. Lawyers must have a Masters Degree in Law/Criminal Justice. Judges are appointed by the District Congresses, and have similar requirements to Supreme Court Justices; A Master’s Degree in Law, no Federal Offenses to speak of, and must be at least 36 years old. They are chosen based on impartiality and experience/knowledge of law.

Demographics:
Most demographics polls are taken based on nation of origin/ancestry. The Official Census Records give this ethnic breakdown:

Alemannic* - 78%
Slavic** - 12%
Romanic*** - 4.5%
Arab/North African - 2.7%
North American - 1.8%
Other - 1%

*Alemannic is defined as being from the area of the following former countries: Austria, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, eastern Poland, and, loosely, Hungary.
**Slavic is defined as being from any of the Slavic-descended people located mostly in the Balkans. The vast majority within Federal Borders are Croats.
***Romanic is defined as French, Spanish, Italian, or Romanian descent.

Languages:
The official language of the Alemannic Federation is German, generally the High German dialect found in the Austrian and Bavarian regions of the country.
Recognized languages include: German, French, Norwegian, Dutch, English, Swedish, Danish, Romanian, Finnish, Hungarian, and Greek, and Croatian.

Economy:
The Currency of the Federation is the Mark, which, at the time of writing this, has an exchange rate of 2.1901 T = $1 USD.

Industry: Insufficient Information Available at this time.

Civil Services:

Welfare:
There is a decent welfare system which takes up $953,789,593,062.08 USD between Healthcare and Social Welfare. The Welfare system provides basic unemployment or retirement checks for those in retirement or those who find themselves without work. However, there is a condition for those who are unemployed but are fit to work: they must be seeking work, rather than simply mooching off the system. If insufficient progress (i.e. the person has not even contacted possible employers regarding job interviews, etc.) is made within a certain amount of allowed time, the person’s welfare will be cut off, and anyone in their care will be put under state care (children to an orphanage, elderly to a home, etc.)

Healthcare:
The state provides skeleton healthcare, if for no other reason than to prevent the spread of contagious diseases. The state provides mandatory flu, smallpox, tuberculosis, tetanus, hepatitis, and polio vaccine. The state also pays for a single yearly checkup for people who find themselves unable to afford a doctor. The system is opt-out, and many who can afford it use private healthcare/health insurance.

Transportation:
An extensive high-way system spans the Federation making transportation relatively easy. A public bus system also runs service throughout most of the Federation, with fares only at a level that allows the system to pay for itself. A subway system also runs underneath most of the cities, with stops along major, central hubs. Again, fares are no higher than what is required for the system to pay for itself. There are major airports in the cities of Vienna, Innsbruck, Berlin, Zagreb, Budapest, Bucharest, Warsaw, Krakow, Danzig, Brussels, Zurich, Prague, The Hague, Amsterdam, Metz, Stockholm, and Oslo.

Education:
Public school attendance for children is mandatory through age 16, when they reach the age of majority, and can opt out. However, most people finish high school, at the very least, as that is generally what is required for most jobs in the Federation. Even most industrial jobs in Grimmeberg tend to require at least a high school diploma. State-funded schooling runs through 12th grade (Kindergarten- 12th grade), and there are a few partially state-funded colleges. There are at least on one Provincially-funded college in each province. Most, however, are private, but most also offer at least partial scholarships awarded on a merit system.

Military

The effective commander-in-chief of the Alemannic Federal Armed Forces is the Captain-General. The Captain-General usually acts as an enforcer for the Chancellor, but the Captain-Generalship is a purely military function.

All men between the ages of 16-60 are part of the National Guard Reserve, with basic training coming during the summer after a citizen turns 16. Generally, regular military personnel are between the ages of 22 and 40, and men between those ages are drafted first in an emergency, with men in the ranges of 16-21 and 41-60 being called up last. Generally, men called up from the Reserve in those age ranges are only deployed in a capacity to defend Grimmebergian territory, not for offensive purposes. The Grimmebergian military is divided into four primary services (excluding Special Forces): The Volkswehr (Army), the Kriegsmarine (Navy, including Marine Corps), the Luftwaffe (Air Force), and the Gendarmerie (Military Police).

Army:
The Volkswehr is primarily a defensive force employed to protect Alemannic interests abroad, rather than as a tool of aggression. The Heer maintains a peacetime strength of about 2.5 million combat personnel. The standard operational unit of the Heer is the battalion, which generally is comprised of about 300 men. The formation directly below this is a company, with a nominal strength of 100. The formation directly above this is a regiment, with a nominal strength of 2,100. The standard strategic formation is the Division, with a nominal strength of 31,500 troops. An army generally has 16 divisions, with 5 armies: The Army of the Rhine, Army of the Danube, Army of the Vistula, Army of Scandinavia, and the Army of The Elbe. The elite of the army are the Sturmtruppen (Storm troopers), who are chosen for their physical stamina and strength, as well as weapons and operational skills. The aging Leopard2 currently fills the MBT role, but a replacement is needed.

At the present time, with unification wars on-going and communication and supply in poor shape, the actual fielded combat force is roughly 36 divisions in three armies.

Navy:
The Kriegsmarine is used to protect the extensive trade interests and the security of the Northern European area where Grimmeberg is located, in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. The Kriegsmarine is divided into four fleets, the Scandinavian Fleet, the North Sea Fleet, the Baltic Fleet, and the Adriatic Fleet. At the moment, the fleets are undergoing major retro-fitting.
Roughly 5 million personnel* are maintained in the peacetime Kriegsmarine naval component.
The Marine Corps is organized along similar lines as the Heer, but operates more closely with the Kriegsmarine and leads amphibious assaults. Roughly 250,000 combat personnel* are maintained in the peacetime Marine Corps.
The Coast Guard has nothing but patrol craft and helicopters, and maintains roughly 60,000 personnel.

Air Force:
The Luftwaffe is a primarily defensive force deployed to defend the Grimmebergian home island, and accompanies taskforces to foreign areas as a striking force. Due to the cost of airfields with long runways, the standard fighters and bombers of the Luftwaffe are combination horizontal and vertical flight planes, which take off straight up and down. The standard fighter is the Multi-Purpose-109, and the standard bomber is the HB-87. Both take off vertically, and are heavy firepower planes. The regular formation is the Attack Group, which has between 9 and 15 planes. The formation directly below this is the Wing, with 3-5 planes. The formation directly above an Attack Group is a Squadron, with anywhere from 36-60 planes. There are four types of Squadron: Fighter, Bomber, Nightfighter and Nightbomber. The Night Squadron pilots are trained to prioritize stealth, the element of surprise, and precision, while daylight pilots are trained more to emphasize general destruction and to serve more as a visible sign of Grimmebergian power. Both types of pilots are well-trained to be technical, if not necessarily talented, pilots. The Luftwaffe maintains roughly 5.3 million personnel* in peacetime.

Gendarmerie:
The Grimmebergian Gendarmerie serves as the military police force for dealing with tougher criminals: spies, gangs, mass murderers, foreign Special Forces agents, etc. They function more or less as SWAT team members, but they answer more directly to the Heer’s commanders, their own commanders, or executive powers, rather than local chiefs or lower ranked officers. They are organized into platoons of 20 officers. Roughly 1,200,000 personnel* are maintained in normal times. The Gendarmerie is also responsible for training and overseeing Home Defense National Guard units (the units not normally called upon; last resort Reserve Guard units).

* Note: This includes administrative and non-combat personnel.

Citizenship and Politics

Age of Majority:
Citizens reach the Age of Majority at 16, and are eligible to register to vote. This coincides with the age one can get their drivers’ license (learner’s permit at 15 ½), that one can drop out of school, and that one joins the National Guard Home Defense Reserve. One can drink brewed or fermented alcoholic drinks (beer, wine, campaign) at 18, and hard liquor at 21.

Major Political Parties:
There are four major parties in Grimmebergian politics, which have roughly even numbers of people who follow their ideologies/beliefs. The major parties are: The Popular Democratic Party, the Moderate Socialist Party, the Libertarian Party, and the Nationalist Party. The leader of each party and their general platform follow the names below.

Popular Democratic Party
Leader: Gerd Becker
Platform: Seeks to increase government power and to make the government more directly democratic. They have liberal takes on issues such as abortion, the environment, gun control, big business regulation, etc.

Moderate Socialist Party
Leader: Nicolas Crispin
Platform: Seeks to push socialist social programs through (increased welfare, more state control, etc.) and streamline the government more (not necessarily doing away with democratic institutions, but reducing them a bit). Has more liberal takes on issues such as abortion, the environment, gun control, big business regulation, etc.

Libertarian Party
Leader: Diane Pidon
Platform: Aims to reduce government involvement in everyday life, (decreasing welfare, looser gun control, generally weaker government) and keep things more directly democratic. Has more conservative takes on issues such as abortion, business regulation, gun control, etc.

Nationalist Party
Leader: Franz von Danzig
Platform: Aims to increase government power, streamline the government, and project more military and economic power and influence around the world. Has more conservative takes on issues such as abortion, unionizing, and religion, with more liberal views on welfare and the environment, and moderate takes on immigration and gun control.

Military:

Captain-General Markus Fedor Dreyse

Heer:
Major General Heinrich Fuchs
Major General George Svenson
Major General Stephen Meier

Kriegsmarine:
Admiral Thomas Carnegie
Admiral Franz Stoeber
Admiral Andrik Vasa
Admiral Gerd von Beck

Luftwaffe:
Wing Commander Kyle Iles
Wing Commander Michael Sellers
Wing Commander Zachary Messing

Is there anything I seem to be forgetting, or that seems unreasonable? I'm open to comments.