Goias factbook

[Goias]

The Democratic Republic of Goias

Basic Information
Official Name: The Democratic Republic of Goias
Demonym: Goian
National motto: The people have the last word
National anthem: Long Live Goias
Form of Government: Federal parliamentary democracy
Head of State: President Serafim Nayru
Head of Government: Prime Minister Andrea Rasana
Capital: Arasar
Official language: English, Goian
Recognised regional languages: Portuguese, Greek, Armenian, German, Giazeri, Limburgian, Tomesian, Zineran, Sineraul, Nhej, Yaskan and Erlàn.
Official religion: none (officially secular)
Currency: Rajes (R$)
Region: The Kingdom of Middle Earth
Population: 6.526 billion
Total land area: 15.670.000 km²

National codes
National Abbreviation: GIS
ISO Nation Code: GIAS
ISO Currency Code: GRJ
International Calling Code: +36
Top Level Domains: .gis .gs
Sports Code: GIS
Civilian Naval Craft Code: GSC
Military Naval Craft Code: GSN

Sections
1. Introduction
2. History
3. Geography
4. Economy
5. Demography
6. Government and political system
6.1. Administrative divisions
6.2. Political system
6.3. Political parties
6.4. Law enforcement
6.5. Foreign affairs
6.6. Military
7. Education and Health
8. Culture

Introduction
Goias, officially known as the Democratic Republic of Goias, is a nation in the region of The Kingdom of Middle Earth. Located on the continent of Asayl, it is the most populous country in the region with almost 6.5 billion people and an economic powerhouse with large reserves of natural resources and well-developed industries.

Goias is constitutionally a federal parliamentary republic, divided into 27 provinces and 4 autonomous areas. Despite its large size it only shares land borders with six countries: Antánas, Zeri, Morzame, Luzer, Xerion and Tanán. The country is currently attempting to fulfill its potential as a great power, reversing a policy of non-implication and focusing on internal issues that persisted since independence.

[Goias]

History

Early history
Goias is relatively isolated due to its mountainous northern borders and its distance from western Asayl (the main population centre in prehistoric times), not helped by the presence of the Aumát Desert between Goias and the west (now in modern Tanán). Thus, it received no permanent settlement in ancient times until around 1000 BC and even then only very sparsely. The two main areas of settlement were the Yeshin Highlands in the north and the southern coast. These two populations were small in number and have since been washed away by Goias' turbulent history (mostly by interbreeding), leaving no cultural, linguistic or genetic traces in the area or any relations to modern inhabitants.

The area started being properly settled in the early medieval era, mostly by nomadic tribes and refugees fleeing from other countries. These often came from radically different backgrounds and tended to limit contact with different settlers. Thus, by 1500 the area of present-day Goias was filled with small city-states formed by a patchwork of different minorities. This period saw the consolidation of the country's main ethnic groups: the English, Portuguese, Greeks, Armenians, Germans (which all arrived almost simultaneously in the area), Zerians, Limburgians, Tomesians, Zinerans, Sinerauls, Nheji, Yaskans and Erlàns.

Slowly but surely the small city-states merged together and consolidated into nation-states, and by 1550 the area contained five regional powers: Arasar, Garés, Senik, Estro, and Ladeira. Relations between them were peaceful because all countries recognized that they were all formed from the fusion of various ethnicities and none could claim a predominant role in the space they were all occupying, instead preferring to expand eastward and westward.

The Azraq-Jelstan occupation
These small countries attracted the attention of the two emerging powers of western Asayl, the Azraq Empire (to the west of Goias) and the Kingdom of Jelstan (to the east). As part of a secret agreement, the two countries simultaneously invaded Goias in 1568, diving the countries among themselves - Azraq received Arasar and Garés, Jelstan took over Senik and Estro while Ladeira was forced to accept the suzerainity of Azraq in order to maintain its territory and a degree of autonomy while avoiding annexation.

Both Azraq and Jelstan largely left their occupied areas alone, only demanding that the population pay their taxes but otherwise not interfering, believing that the ethnic patchwork would be impossible to subdue and thus not worth the trouble. Azraq even allowed local governments to form and rule the provinces. Both countries expanded further over the years and implemented a policy of deporting unruly minorities to Goias in order to pacify unstable outer regions, along with whoever was opposed to the absolute monarchy. Due to this policy, the area of Goias steadily became ungovernable and prone to severe unrest, while in the same time relations between the two empires deteriorated, turning into outright rivalry only 50 years after their cooperation in conquering Goias.

Border tensions and disputes eventually erupted into war in 1680, but the Azraq-Jelstan War quickly turned into a stalemate marked by minimal advances on the front and repeated attempts to quell insurrections by minorities in both countries.

In this atmosphere, Ladeiran armed forces (which had become a force to contend with in the century since the invasion) quickly joined a revolt in Arasar in 1692 under the leadership of the brilliant General Hayçao, which spread throughout the region. The exhausted and bankrupt Azraq forces could not defeat the insurrection, and the territory was liberated by 1697. The independence of the newly-christened Kingdom of Goias was recognized by Jelstan and Azraq with the Yeshin Treaty of the same year. Shortly afterwards, the respective countries splintered themselves, replaced by a patchwork of small- and medium-sized countries, of which three bordered Goias: Antánas, Zeri and Morzame. Morzame and Zeri were taken over by the emerging Nezrak Empire in 1747 and 1761, respectively.

The Kingdom of Goias
The early period
Once independence was recognized, the country was organized as the Kingdom of Goias in 1697. King Hasur the Founder was chosen as the first king of Goias by a popular congregation, and for the next two centuries the country was ruled by the Hasur royal family.

Hasur's reign saw a preoccupation with establishing solid foundations for the functioning of the country, which had almost no national identity to speak of besides the fact that all ethnicities lived in the same area and had shared bitter experiences under Azraq and Jelstan's occupation. Arasar was designated as the capital, the country's first unified currency was implemented (the gáreis), taxes were decreed and the first schools appeared in the country. The country was an absolute monarchy, but its sheer size made centralized rule impractical and ineffective, as it was hard for the king in Arasar to assert his authority in the distant regions, especially in the Yeshin Highlands. Hasur lost popularity thanks to increasing taxes throughout his reign and in his final ears he was increasingly seen as aloof and uninterested in governance, more preoccupied with libertine, hedonistic behaviour at the Royal Palace and building up a royal family through polygamy.

Hasur died in 1728 due to an accidental drowning and was succeeded by his 20-year old son Daitsen. Daitsen set out to rebuild the royal family's image from Hasur's escapades and fulfill Goias' potential as a great power. After imposing a strict code of conduct (including a ban on polygamy and the obligation that each family member must enter a marriage and produce a child) along with a dress code on the family, the new king set out to establish a proper administrative apparatus and assert his authority over the country. He divided Goias into various regions and appointed governors on the basis of merit, reorganized the country's army and implemented numerous programs to increase the quality of life. These included abolishing serfdom, extensive construction and maintenance of the country's infrastructure, reducing taxes, allowing free trade and transit through Goias for foreigners and using his large fortune to invest in architectural work and culture. His long reign (1728-1789) is considered Goias' first golden age due to internal stability, prosperity and a flourishing Goian culture. For his success, he has received the epithet "Daitsen the Great", in keeping with Goian tradition of bestowing epithets or nicknames upon their monarchs.

All was not rosy however. Towards the end of Daitsen's reign the nobility of Goias had gained an increasingly important political position, while the country had to weather the combined disasters of the 1787 famine (with circa 1 million victims) and an outbreak of cholera in south-eastern Goias in 1789, which claimed half a million people including King Daitsen. He was succeeded by King Satyakar the Bloody (1789-1800), who proved to be completely unfit for the office thanks to his combination of ruthlessness and naivety. Satyakar fell under the influence of the Goian nobility and took many measures considered to favour them (including special privileges and reduced taxes), while brutally suppressing any opposition to his reign and attempting to centralize the administration. Soon he became massively unpopular, and his obsession with stamping out dissent led to paranoia and neglect of governance.

"Guided democracy"
With Goias' economy suffering from Satyakar's incompetent and erratic rule and popular unrest at a breaking point, an insurrection broke out in Yeshin in 1798. The insurrectionists, formed chiefly of mutinying soldiers and the local population organized into militias, managed to resist the initial attacks by the Goian army due to the mountainous terrain, and eventually more and more Goian troops deserted and joined the insurrectionists in opposition to Satyakar. The newly-assembled army started advancing southwards and reached Arasar on 17 February 1800. Joined by the residents of the city, the crowd marched up to the Royal Palace and demanded Satyakar's resignation. Satyakar appeared on the balcony of the palace and delivered a defiant speech that only served to enrage the crowd further. In what would be subsequently named "The Great Defenestration", Satyakar's wife Rosana suddenly appeared on the balcony, grabbed Satyakar, lifted him over her head and threw him into the crowd, which cheered wildly and immediately beat him to death.

Rosana was crowned Queen of Goias immediately, in the capital's central square. Her lasting achievement was to transition to a constitutional monarchy by introducing the Goias Charter, forming a Parliament and establishing the office of Prime Minister. While the charter delegated the day-to-day running of the country to the Prime Minister, Rosana reserved for herself enormous reserve powers which she could use at her pleasure. In fact, she secretly ruled the country by proxy, introducing or supporting legislation through the Prime Minister in Parliament and not hesitating to blackmail, threaten or use her powers to prevent conservatives from damaging her reforms. She struck a great blow to the nobility through her economic reforms and managed to install a puppet government with Prime Minister Aytrámanes Gar (1825-1845) by endorsing him in the election, something she had previously not done.

Despite this behaviour, Goias remained a democratic state which respected the basic rights of the citizens and had a more efficient government. Rosana was unanimously supported by Goians due to her role in democratization, her open, friendly persona and rapport with the populace - she was a commoner who had married Satyakar, and in contrast to the previous kings she regularly visited all the regions in the country in order to listen to her subjects. Her support was so widespread that Goians even tolerated her uses of her reserve powers to block the nobles who wanted to revert to absolutism, believing them to be necessary for the ultimate success of democracy in the country. She instituted various reforms that brought Goias back to fiscal health, contributed to a more equitable distribution of income and steadily diminished the political power of the nobility.

In this period the two main factions of Goian politics formed two main "political organizations" (the precursor to modern parties) which ran in elections: the Liberals and the Conservatives. The Liberals drew their main support from the urban population, the working class and the farmers, and supported a program of democracy and reforms meant to improve the conditions of ordinary people and strengthen the middle class (which represented the "toss-up" electorate, which could go towards either faction). The Conservatives were noblemen and members of the upper class, who believed in maintaining their own privileges and wealth and restricting popular participation in politics. However, the Liberals had a trump card over the Conservatives: the support of Queen Rosana, whose views on reform coincided with theirs.

In her final year, Rosana disinherited her son Prince Fajar and named as successor her youngest daughter, 30-year old Princess Sarah. The reigns of Queens Rosana (1800-1850) and Sarah (1850-1890) are considered Goias' second golden age, and the two have been given the epithet "the Great". Sarah was just as popular as Rosana, but still had to contend with the nobility and the conservatives, which even in their weakened state had formed a coalition and still represented a threat, having managed to secure the election of Prime Minister Dengar Vida (1845-1853). His program called for the restriction of the electorate to landowners, creating a House of the Lords, adopting a proportional representation system that would give extra weight to rural areas (where conservatives were the strongest) and a reform of the tax system. This agenda was repeatedly blocked in Parliament, but the conservatives received further gains in the 1850 election, forcing Sarah to block the legislation by refusing to sign it.

Sarah became more politically active after Vida's sudden death in office resulted in snap elections. She campaigned all over the country for the liberals, who received a plurality of votes in the highly polarised political climate, and helped install liberal leader Ayàr Nemaz (1853-1868) as Prime Minister by refusing to swear in a conservative government. Sarah took no further chances after Vida's term, amending the Goias Charter to increase her powers (changing them from reserve powers to regular powers) and hand-picking her Prime Ministers afterwards, ensuring a 30-year domination of liberals in government under Nemaz, Evangelios Mikis Roussos (1868-1878) and Hayberd Svisàr (1878-1883). This system that combined the absolute monarchy with a constitutional framework, extensive civil liberties and elected governments came to be known as "guided democracy", surviving thanks to the radicalisation of conservatives, economic prosperity and Sarah's popularity, commonly perceived as protecting Goias from a return to Satyakar's excesses. Having squeezed the conservatives out of government and basically gained absolute powers, Sarah gradually withdrew from actively ruling the country starting with Roussos' term, delegating this task to her cooperative Prime Ministers.

However, guided democracy required that Sarah maintain a tight grip on the country's politics using her absolute powers to prevent the system's inherent contradictions from surfacing. While her popularity remained absolute, Sarah's increasing withdrawal in favour of spending time at home, visiting the country and nurturing an obsession with increasingly elaborate clothes and crossdressing demonstrated signs of failing mental health and had the effect of isolating her from the power structures. A corruption scandal erupted in 1881 and knocked Svisàr out of the race, with conservatives winning the election. Sarah attempted to reject the government and force the formation of a new one, but the narrow result stymied her efforts. After three separate votes, the only concession she extracted was the more moderate Geyder Dörpatch (1883-1888) as Prime Minister. This wound up not making a difference in the end: while Dörpatch was outwardly moderate, he and the rest of the conservatives were furious at being shut out of power and wanted to retaliate by doing the same to liberals. They bided their time and waited for the increasingly frail and distant Sarah to stop being a threat, while Dörpatch simply preserved the liberal policies that had been applied to Goias. His attempts to increase the majority of conservatives by expanding Parliament and using proportional representation constantly failed in Parliament or weren't signed by the Queen.

Dörpatch was still not trusted by the population, and as his term went on protests started taking place against his rule, spontaneously but regularly. Time was on his side though: Sarah became increasingly senile and unhealthy, withdrawing to the Royal Palace permanently in 1886 after suffering an almost-fatal case of pneumonia. Dörpatch expected that the withdrawal of the queen would make it easier to implement his policies, but liberals only rallied and became more radical after this event. With his policies repeatedly blocked and his slow reaction to the famine of 1887-1888, Dörpatch became highly unpopular and left the race, with Radisaz Keymer being elected Prime Minister instead. Keymer's term coincided with an increase in political instability and another natural disaster (the Yeshin Flood of 1890), and he was forced to resign in 1890. The liberal Kezir Docksa took over instead, but could not halt the increasing destabilization of Goias.

The Civil War
Queen Sarah's increasingly unstable health while at the Palace and isolation did not dent her popularity, and her death of a heart attack in 1890 resulted in a period of national mourning. Her son Syrk was crowned as her successor, having only just turned 18.

However, Syrk proved to be the last straw for the country due to his radical conservative views and closeness to the Arasar nobility. He repeatedly stymied Docksa's attempts to legislate and restore order to Goias' politics. The 1893 election was highly fraudulent: despite the conservatives' unpopularity among Goians they rigged themselves a majority and installed Jé Novan as Prime Minister. Novan and Syrk were just as authoritarian, and they instituted changes including the reduction of Parliament to an advisory status, transferring more powers to the monarchy and restricting suffrage to landowners and noblemen.

The massive uproar that resulted from these changes led to an insurrection in 1895 led by Syrk's older sister, Princess Julia. The insurrection, formed of ordinary people who took up arms and half of Goias' standing army, managed to secure the west of the country and Yeshin before being bogged down by quickly organized conservative forces towards the east.

Syrk and Novan were deposed, and all their changes were declared null and void. Julia was crowned Queen, and named Naci Kuradzo as Prime Minister. However, the war quickly turned into a bloody stalemate between the Julians and the Syrkists, who managed to fight themselves to a standstill along the Tsikona River in central Goias, with repeated tactical maneuvers and attempts to break out ending up ineffective. However, Julians managed to advance southwards from Yeshin in 1897, allowing the Tsikona units to advance towards the east towards the regional stronghold. Panicked, the Syrkists massed their entire army to defeat the Julians. Both armies met at the Battle of Ervor in 1898 and suffered massive casualties, to the point that the battle is now considered a draw.

The Nezrak occupation
The expansionist Nezrak Empire had been a source of anxiety for Goias ever since it swallowed Goias' eastern neighbours Morzame and Zeri in 1747 and 1761, but King Daitsen managed to negotiate an alliance in 1762 that, for the time being, kept Goias safe. However, Nezrak had increasingly expanded in the subsequent century and by the time of the civil war had begun having designs on conquering Goias. In the aftermath of the Battle of Ervor, the Syrkists' leading general Marius Sençeta, a long-time spy for the Nezrakis, offered his services as a ruler and urged the empire to invade as soon as possible. Nezraki forces invaded Goias only a week afterwards, quickly overrunning the country. King Syrk was initially pleased, believing that they had come to restore him to the throne, but was shocked to find that Sençeta had usurped power and he was arrested.

Goias was quickly declared a province of the Nezrak Empire and Marius Sençeta was installed as Governor. His first acts were meant to squelch opposition to his rule: dissolving Parliament (replacing it with an advisory body), banning the previous political organizations and arresting the entire Royal Family, who were publicly executed in the capital on 7 September 1898. These acts set the tone for the rest of his term, in which he introduced to Goias all the characteristics of a typical authoritarian state (lack of freedoms, secret police, censorship, no elections) and practically tripped over himself trying to appease the new Nezrak overlords, obsessed with the idea of eventually having a career in mainstream Nezrak politics instead of being just the ruler of a border province.

Nezrak did not have much interest in Goias besides its strategic position and natural resources. Thus, they carried on with the same attitude as Azraq and Jelstan, largely leaving Goias under Sençeta and again deporting unruly minorities and those convicted of political crimes to the province as an alternative to costly imprisonment. While they did send supervisors to make sure that Sençeta would not try to defy the Nezrakis and to make sure that tax collection proceeded correctly, the central Nezraki authorities seemed to regard Goias as merely "another outer province", albeit one which occupied 15 million square kilometres and had about 2 billion people. As more and more "advisors" poured into the province Sençeta begun increasingly relying on them exclusively, and by the time of his death they had formed the country's main political class, popularly and perjoratively referred to as the "jaezìn", which is Erlàn for "foreigners".

Sençeta's economic policies soon became focused on catering to the jaezìn. While he hiked taxes for the population, he gave them tax cuts and bestowed on them nobiliary titles and properties confiscated from the old nobility of Goias, who were soon reduced to the status of ordinary citizens despite being allowed to retain their titles. Increasingly large revenues were swallowed up by the repressive state apparatus and a bloated bureaucracy staffed by Nezrakis.

Sençeta died in 1925, having never fulfilled his ambitions of advancing into Nezraki politics and leaving a legacy as a national traitor who sold out Goias and ruled it dictatorially. His successor was Saykiz Karén, a Nezraki banished to the post of Governor for an outer province after supporting the losing side of an internal power struggle. In contrast to the Goians' intense hatred for Sençeta, Karén is comparatively well-regarded. He was a laid-back, apathetic politician who lacked the dictatorial zeal and power-hungry inscrupulous nature of Sençeta and even took a few steps towards liberalizing Goias. He slashed the funding of the secret police to 10% of its former budget, changed the mandatory punishment for "anti-Nezrak agitation" to merely a fine and dissolved the Media Regulation Department of the Nezrak Military Police. While his uninterested demeanour allowed Goians more freedoms than they had under Sençeta he also left the jaezìn alone, who accumulated even more power and wealth to become the upper class of Goias. Their extravagance and conspicuous consumption outraged ordinary citizens who found themselves shut out of power and unable to advance socially beyond the middle class.

The tide changed in 1928 when Tsikan Sanyan formed the National Independence Party of Goias (NIPG), advocating securing independence by any means necessary. The Nezrak Military Police attempted to harass them and repeatedly shut them down but they were stymied by Karén's restrictions on prosecuting political crimes and disinterest. In this environment, the NIPG soon became the largest political organization in the country. When it became obvious that, while Karén honestly didn't care, the Nezrak Empire refused to make any concessions, Sanyan and General Udisya Lejas established and organized the Goias Partisan Force (GPF) in preparation of a future liberation. While initially small, the GPF soon became a force to be reckoned with as a result of its intense training and militant zeal.

The Democratic Republic
Liberation
What is now known as the Great Awakening started on New Year's Day 1945 with "the blunder that killed the Empire". In the capital of Xerion Province, a certain L. Roi Denkinz had just attempted an armed robbery of the Xerion National Bank when his plan went horribly wrong and turned into a hostage situation. While the hostages eventually escaped unharmed, Denkinz barricaded himself in the bank building and engaged in sporadic shootouts with the entire police force, which had showed up to end the situation. Taking advantage of the chaos, the local resistance group managed to seize the mayoral building and subdue the police by attacking them from the back. At precisely midnight, the Xerionites broadcasted their declaration of independence over the local media and began a disorganized insurrection. However, what the Xerionites lacked in preparedness (Denkinz's blunder caught them by surprise) they more than made up with the element of surprise, additional numbers from hastily-formed citizens' militias and quick organization. By the morning the insurrection had managed to gain the upper hand. Panicked, Nezrak sent in the army, which Xerionites resisted using guerilla warfare tactics.

Seeing that Xerion managed to resist, Sanyan and the NIPG seized the opportunity and declared Goias' independence on 5 January 1945 at 7:00 AM. Lejas' GPF moved quickly and smoothly, seizing the major cities and disarming the administrative apparatus, capturing most Nezrak forces and their weaponry. Everything went according to plan, and by the end of the day all internal threats had been neutralized and the GPF massed on Goias' eastern border to repel any Nezraki attacks. While Nezrak sent ten divisions to attempt to subdue Goias, they were easily repelled by the GPF at the fortified border and their attention was diverted by further declarations of independence (Zerians on 7 January, Tanáns on 10 January, Luzerites on 15 February, North Limburgians on 3 March).

The world almost immediately recognized all these countries' independence after having ostracized the Nezrakis for imperialism and dictatorial governance. Thanks to the disarray of the Nezrak military and internal turmoil, Goias was spared any further attacks, and the GPF even had sufficient manpower to aid the Zerians and the dangerously overstretched and disorganised North Limburgians. However, Sanyan's "interim administration" led the country during a tense and precarious period where fear of Nezraki counterattack was high and preparation for such was considered paramount. Conscription was introduced, nationwide martial law was declared and the government in the meantime focused on cleaning up and purging the country's administration and bureaucracy of Nezrakis. Tens of thousands were brought to trial and convicted for active participation in the dictatorship (those who could prove that they had done nothing wrong and had merely joined to advance their careers were acquitted), many of them sentenced to long terms in prison or death. Notably, Karén managed to escape such a fate; when repeated testimonies and documents proved that he was apathetic and did not actively govern the country, the court decided to acquit him because he had done nothing wrong and had even helped the NIPG through his utter incompetence.

As the war went on, it became obvious that Nezrak could not win. Emboldened, the GPF left the fortified border and started an offensive into the Empire along with the Zerian armed forces in 1947. Finally, under the combined assault of all the minorities, the Nezraki capital fell in 1949 and the Empire was officially disbanded.

Early post-war period
Goias was in a very advantageous position after Nezrak's collapse. It had performed its cleanup during the war and now had managed to change its bureaucracy without much disruption. But most importantly, the economic and social gap which handicapped the country's "guided democracy" had disappeared after Goias' former upper class had been replaced by the jaezìn, and the more-or-less equal status of the citizens defused the polarization the country had undergone in the 19th century.

After Nezrak's collapse, Sanyan dissolved the temporary Parliament and his NIPG handily won the 1949 elections against a barely-nascent opposition, with him being elected President. With the war over, he quickly refocused and redoubled his efforts to lay solid foundations for his newly independent country. A constitution was adopted, organizing the country as a federal presidential democracy, implementing strict division of powers and introducing the official name "The Democratic Republic of Goias" (both perceived as slams against the old "guided democracy"), a constitution still in use with some modifications.

Sanyan's main areas of concern were the economy and the society, wishing to prevent another upper classes-lower classes schism and remedy the deteriorating conditions. Securing his funding through the implementation a progressive tax system, Sanyan launched a massive reform program to transform Goias into a welfare state befitting its size and population. Universal healthcare and social security was introduced to guarantee a "social safety net", the education system was modernized and made free for all, government regulation and oversight to protect consumers was introduced. Sanyan's main goal was to create a mixed economy, and other than strong environmental and consumer protection laws he left businesses alone. His term saw great investment in what he termed the "three fundamental areas": education, health care and social services, which were government-subsidised. He also nationalized many important areas of the economy, such as transportation, financial services, communication services, energy services and water distribution.

During his term, the GPF was transformed into the Goias National Army (GNA), and the National Police was founded in 1945. The NP's creation was accompanied by the National Law Enforcement Code (NLEC), a highly-detailed document that listed precisely the police's activities, obligations and restrictions, the latter including several strict provisions against behaviour that would infringe on civil rights. The NLEC, just like the Constitution, is still used in Goias with only minor modifications. The President also proved to be quite forward-thinking for his time, implementing universal suffrage and socially liberal measures. Since his term, with a few interludes, Goias has largely followed the socially liberal policy patterns set by the NIPG.

Sanyan was massively popular in Goias and won easy re-election in 1954, but the NIPG was highly fractious and prone to infighting due to its "big tent" construction, and indeed Sanyan was practically the only thing that held the party together. His second term saw the rise of the Socialist Party (SP) and the Conservative Party (CP), a disintegration of the NIPG that even he couldn't stop and a conservative backlash against his social liberalism.

The Reorganization
Tsikan Sanyan announced that he would not run for another term in 1959 and would withdraw from politics at the end of his term. The subsequent decade between Sanyan's retirement and his offspring entering government is called "The Reorganization" due to the realignment of politics in this period.

Lacking the glue that held them together, the NIPG lost the election to the CP, with moderate gains by the SP. While the CP wasn't as publically disorganized as the NIPG, it had its share of tension between the moderate wing and the rightist wing of the party. The newly-elected president Jeru Saroyan belonged to the latter faction, and hopes were high that a reconciliation between the two would take place and the CP would become a legitimate political force.

These hopes were dashed on 10 March 1959. Only a month after his inauguration, Saroyan abandoned the moderate language of his electoral campaign and showed his true colours as a hardened conservative. An package of social laws was introduced which represented a 180 turn from NIPG moderation. These laws included: the Membership Amendment to the NLEC, banning women from joining the NP, a reform of education popularly known as "militarization" (readopting corporal punishment, mandatory uniforms), the establishment of the Censorship Bureau (which would have wide-ranging powers to censor the media in the interests of "public morality"), a mandatory public dress code and criminalizing extramarital sexual relations. The package was blocked in Parliament by an ad-hoc alliance of moderate conservative MPs, socialists and the NIPG, but Saroyan used the support of the rightist faction and was able to have it passed by one vote.

The package provoked immediate revulsion and anger for the Goian populace - the country's main broadsheet memorably summed up the country's fury with the headline "FUCK YOU, SAROYAN!", the only time they abandoned objectivity. Many moderate CP MPs quit the party and instead served as independents. Daily protests started taking place against the measures, including the now-infamous Dzerjin Street Protest in Arasar, when the NP forces attacked and brutalised a crowd of non-violent protesters against the Membership Amendment on 20 December 1959, which served as an impetus for the formation of the Crowd Control Police Force (CCPF), the riot police. The reforms of education were widely ignored and rejected by both students and teachers, the Censorship Board was ineffective at best and attempts to enforce the dress code only served to swallow up large NP funds. The conservative elements of Goias had managed to reverse Sanyan's social policy, at the expense of destroying their legitimacy as a political movement, having their changes ignored by the populace and strengthening the SP.

But the final bomb came in 1961, when it was revealed that Saroyan used to work in the Nezraki administration. Saroyan was summarily thrown out of the CP by a unanimous vote, serving for the rest of his term as an independent as Goias did not have an impeachment procedure until 1964. Saroyan was left unable to pass any further legislation due to his isolation. In 1962, disgusted moderates left the CP en masse to form the Popular Democratic Party (PDP), while simultaneously the NIPG collapsed and all its members joined the SP and the National Liberal Party (NLP) was formed two years later. The CP was now left with only the radical conservatives, and could not block the SP-championed 1962 constitutional convention, which transformed Goias into a parliamentary republic, switched many powers from the President to the Prime Minister and scheduled elections for Prime Minister for 1964.

Thanks to their spirited opposition to Saroyan and spearheading the constitutional convention, the SP's William Narayan won the presidential election, while Darán Zheran of the PDP became Prime Minister on a platform of collaboration with the SP and reversing Saroyan's "fuck ups", as he called them. Narayan was the last President of note, from then on the attention, importance and main duty of governing the country shifting to the office of the Prime Minister. Narayan and Zherán immediately passed a law rendering Saroyan's changes null and void, but which did not apply to the NLEC due to a constitutional technicality. Three attempts to quash the Membership Amendment were narrowly denied the necessary amount of votes by the CP despite Zherán's attempts. Instead Zherán narrowly passed two watered-down amendments in 1966 and 1969 that allowed women to serve in the NP but with a few separate restrictions, and only in 1981 discriminatory language was erased from the NLEC.

Zherán refused to run for reelection in 1969, an election that saw a reversal of the 1964 results: Pavel Sukodza of the PDP was elected President and Renata Sanyan of the SP was elected Prime Minister, an event that affirmed the strength of the Sanyan political family. Renata's term saw the adoption of even more socially liberal measures (legalizing and regulating drugs and prostitution, legalizing drugs, legalizing abortion) and the introduction of the flexicurity model still in use, combining labour market flexibility (easy hiring and firing) with security for the unemployed (high unemployment benefit). She also oversaw the fusion of the SP and Social Democrat Party in 1972, forming the Moderate Socialist Party (MSP) and the introduction of environmentalism into the party's platform as a reaction to the formation of the Green Party (GP) in 1970.

Post-Reorganization Goias
1974 saw the MSP and PDP lose ground to the NLP, which spurred Renata Sanyan to form a coalition MSP-NLP government, the first coalition government so far. The coalition convened another constitutional convention and agreed to reduce the term of the Prime Minister and President to four years starting with the next election.

However, Renata died of a heart attack in 1976. Instead of immediately swearing in a successor, the Parliament decided to have the election take place immediately, and lengthen Sukodza's term by a year to synchronize the two in 1980. At a loss for a good leader, the MSP experienced the worst result of its history, winning only 200 seats out of 500. A new PDP-NLP coalition installed Jana Meivich as Prime Minister.

Unfortunately, Meivich had the bad luck of being in office during a period of economic stagnation. Believing that the socialistic reforms pursued by the SP/MSP had reached their limit, Meivich introduced a program of liberalization, reducing the tax rate, privatizing many public companies and attempting to streamline the bureaucracy. When these did not appear to have any immediate results, she launched an even more radical initiative and gave the National Bank independence from the government, floating the currency.

While these changes did result in the economy picking up again, Meivich suffered in the polls due to the slow recovery. The PDP-NLP coalition was trounced in the 1980 polls by the MSP, which dominated the government for the next twenty years under Daezín Sanyan (1980-1988) and his sister Maria (1988-2000). The terms of both siblings were marked by similar policies: liberalization of the economy, allowing private companies to complete with publicly owned institutions in certain areas of the economy, keeping the progressive tax system intact and cutting spending to maintain the country's budget surplus. Maria most notably began investing in alternative energy resources and started a program to gradually replace the country's power plants with environmentally-friendly ones. Both siblings presided over a period of rapid economic growth (with the exception of a slight slowdown between 1981-1982 and 1988-1989) and continued the trend that had taken place since independence of neglecting foreign affairs in favour of a focus on internal problems and socioeconomic development. However, both Daezín and Maria took this disinterest in foreign affairs to a new level by reducing the GNA's funding.

Maria retired from the post of PM in 2000, when the first PDP government in 20 years was formed by Yanaz Daralà, who won a narrow majority in Parliament by promising to maintain the MSP policies with "slight adjustments" and a reform of the welfare state. Daralà had no time to act on this plan however, as only a year after his term begun the Noah Lenker scandal erupted.

The scandal involved three businessmen: Noah Lenker, John Paul Russwall and Miles Ameise-Weyler, who had been involved in a long-running scheme of embezzlement and money laundering since 1990, using foreign bank accounts. Exposed once NP officer Jane Fletcher discovered irregularities within their tax accounts, Lenker, Russwall and Ameise-Weyler were convicted of money laundering, tax evasion and bribery. The scandal grew to implicate NP members such as Officer Nancy Gray (who had stashed nearly R$ 10 million in her accounts and did not declare it as revenue), Officer Mary Davis (an officer in the city of Yetra who engaged repeatedly in police brutality but covered it up and extorted R$ 20 million frmo local businesses) and Officer Tyera Lyèsaina (the authoritarian mayor of Yetra who had steadily accumulated power, intimidated journalists and engaged heavily in corrupt practices), along with two other businessmen, Jim Miller and Naven Dzari. Miller also revealed that Daralà was involved, having repeatedly taken bribes and "funding" from Lyèsaina while serving as MP for Yetra and had entered into an agreement under which he would help her accumulate more power and become practically a dictator.

Daralà was immediately impeached and thrown out of office by a unanimous vote. His deputy Geza Radik was named PM instead, at the head of a national coalition PDP-MSP government. He promised to bring all those guilty to justice and rule during a period of "national healing".

Despite polls which indicated Radik was considered more trustworthy by the populace, the PDP suffered a setback in the 2004 elections in favour of the MSP, not helped by the fact that his Minister of Finance Atus Khan had been convicted last year of implication in the Noah Lenker scandal. Radik entered into a "coalition of convenience" with the NLP in order to form a government. He again promised to devote his fullest attention to prosecuting everybody involved.

Throughout 2004 and 2005 the Lenker scandal grew even further, and five of Radik's minsters had to resign in disgrace successively for taking funds from Lenker and bribery: Ryauden Neryák (Minister of Interior Affairs), Lamna Lai (Minister of Transport), Zenya Arynos (Minister of Education, also convicted of tax evasion), Soka Ayudh (Minister of Foreign Affairs) and Nady Gery (Minister of Health, given a harsher sentence because he was found to have stolen money from hospitals). By the start of 2006, the Mayor of Arasar Ken Turan and the region's MP Bavyz Tèlemach were also implicated. Tèlemach however spilled the biggest beans in early 2006 when he revealed that Radik had also been involved in securing legal protection for the company and concealing its assets.

The NLP immediately pulled out of the coalition, while Radik was thrown out of the PDP. Since the PDP lacked a coalition and was badly damaged, the MSP instead formed a government under PM Esím Sanjedan.

Under Sanjedan's leadership and having nothing to do with the scandal, the MSP trounced the PDP in the 2008 election, winning 265 seats out of 500. Sanjedan immediately declared that his main priorities would be to confront the widespread black market (estimated around 65% of Goias' economy), reduce taxes and increase spending on the army. He also promised to break from the past tradition and increase Goias' involvement and attention to foreign relations.

While the Lenker scandal damaged the PDP temporarily, all sides recovered quickly due to the swift prosecution of those involved. The NP did not undergo any changes in public perception (still as popular as ever), but increasing attention was payed to setting up proper checks and balances in small and medium-sized towns to prevent what happened wiith Lyèsaina from happening again.

Sanjedan's tenure has so far been marked by success in the domain of foreign relations and defense, having increased defense spending, introduced mandatory conscription and raised Goias' profile in foreign relations, but difficulty in reducing taxes and failure in confronting the black market, which has since risen to 70%.

[Goias]

Geography

Geographic map. Map by Saru, text by me

Goias is considered the largest nation on Asayl due to its total land area of 15.670.000 km², but curiously only shares borders with six similarly large nations: Antánas (southeast), Zeri (east), Morzame (northeast), Luzer (north), Xerion (northwest) and Tanán (southwest), an anomaly that dates back to the breakup of the Azraq, Jelstani and Nezraki Empires.

Due to its immense size, Goias contains a wide variety of landscapes and climatic regions. Broadly speaking the southern part of the country is formed of highly fertile plains conducive to agriculture, along with alluvial plains along the banks of the Tsikona and Nazar rivers in central and eastern Goias, respectively. This southern area is formed largely of two plains with various subdivisions - the western Lashar Plain and the eastern Arevelyan Plain. While the country in general has a continental climate, its extreme western areas tend to have slightly more pronounced temperature differences due to the proximity to the Aumát Desert.


The Arevelyan Plain outside Tejo

The country is separated from a geographical point of view by a line of demarcation known as the "Yeshin line", which moves roughly across central Goias and denotes the border between the southern lowlands and the northern highlands. The northern area, known as the Yeshin Highlands, is heavily forested, mountainous and hilly, with high altitudes in general and a colder, mountainous climate. The area is generally formed of one long mountain range known as the Yashin, which is split by geographers into various subdivisions - the Gertsch, Dayvan, Slahar and Yaraná Mountains - along with an accompanying range of hills and rolling plains which is also split into subdivisions - the Gysin and Kackar Hills and the Nerazur Mountains. The area also features several plateaus along its length, the biggest of which are the Lyec Plateau in the north-west, the Tsikona Plateau along the eponymous river and the Eastern Plateau, near the border with Morzame.

From a hydrological point of view, the country's main water supplies are the Tsikona River and the Nazar rivers. The Tsikona's source is in Luzer. The river flows southward, then takes a westward turn around Utsrón before reaching its mouth in the Ramye Gulf, where it has formed a delta known as the Tsikona Delta (unsurprisingly). The Nazar originates from Morzame and flows exactly along the border between Goias and its eastern neighbours Morzame, Zeri and Antánas, before emptying into the Gajar Sea. There are other rivers that originate in Goias, but they are generally smaller and are often ignored in casual geography.


The Tsikona River at the boundary between the Gysin Hills and the Lashar Plain

[Goias]

Economy

Goias has a highly developed mixed economy, ranking as the largest national economy in Asayl and among the top 5 in its respective region. Goians enjoy a high standard of living derived from a combination of minimal government intervention in the private sector and high welfare benefits and social expenditures.

Statistics (as of 19 December 2009)
GDP (Official): $83,077 billion
GDP Per Capita(Official): $11,268
GDP Per Capita (Estimated): $34,249
Exchange Rate: 1 rajes = $1.7190
Black Market (Estimated): 72.32%
Black Market Product: $217,006 billion
Worker Enthusiasm: 87%
Government Efficiency: 97%
Consumer Confidence: 92%
Unemployment: 4.32%
Population Growth Rate: 0.08%
Literacy: 100%
Income Tax Rate: 100%
Government Income (% of GDP): 100%
Private Consumption: $78,663 billion
Government Budget: $80,269 billion
Administration (0%): $0 billion
Welfare (3%): $2,492 billion
Healthcare (9%): $7,477 billion
Education (23%): $19,108 billion
Religion and Spirituality (0%): $0 billion
Defence (3%): $2,492 billion
Law and Order (13%): $10,800 billion
Commerce (10%): $8,308 billion
Public Transport (7%): $5,815 billion
Environment (18%): $14,954 billion
Social Equality (13%): $10,800 billio
Government Waste (3%): $2,569 billion

Sources:
http://www.sunsetrpg.com/economystatistics.php?nation=Goias
http://nseconomy.thirdgeek.com/nseconomy.php?nation=Goias
http://nstracker.org/index.php?nation=Goias

Economic overview
Goias is an export-oriented mixed economy based on high worker productivity, a skilled labour force, excellent internal and external communications and a well-developed distribution system.

Judged according to its contributions to the GDP, the main contributions to the economy are as follows: agriculture 10%, industry 30%, services 60%.

Agriculture
Agriculture in Goias is highly government-subsidised and aided, with an emphasis on organic agriculture and limiting damage to the environment. The increased use of machinery and various chemical substances (insecticides, pesticides, fertilizers) has simultaneously made agribusiness more efficient and fueled a rural exodus, but beef-based agriculture remains a major industry in the country. The main crops grown in the fertile southern areas include wheat, corn, maize, potatoes, citrus, olive oil, sugar beet, grapes and sunflowers. Animal husbandry is mainly practiced in the Yeshin Highlands due to the lack of favourable soil and environmental conditions, with various bovines, cattle, sheep, poultry and pigs being the main focus. Fishing and fish farming is practiced along the Tsikona and Nazar Rivers and the Gajar Sea, but limits are imposed by the government to prevent depletion of stocks. Goias is self-sufficient in food and exports most of its additional products to other countries or designates it as aid for regions suffering from famine.

Industry
While industry has suffered a reduction of workforce and economic power due to a transition from an industrial to a post-industrial society, it still forms an important contribution to the Goian economy. The main industries of the country include automobile manufacturing, machinery, petrochemicals, steel, electronics manufacturing, food processing, aluminium smelting, the manufacture of industrial equipment and mining.

The country has numerous supplies of natural resources due to its size. Forestry is practiced under strict government regulations in the Yeshin Highlands, while mineral resources include iron, manganese, nickel, tin, bauxite, copper, lead, tungsten, zinc and silver. There are several natural gas and coal deposits in the north-east, while oil can be found in the west.

Services
Currently the largest sector of the Goian economy both in contribution to the GDP and percentage of the workforce, the service sector includes: telecommunications, banking and financial services, various utilities industries, all public utilities and services (including education and healthcare), tourism, retail and waste disposal, among others. The largest sources for employment in the service sector are education, healthcare and law enforcement.

Recent developments
Goian law allows competition between public utilities and private businesses whenever the two operate in the same sector, such as public utilities and certain basic industries, but the government otherwise allows private businesses to operate freely, as long as they do not break any laws.

Goias governments for a long time have been marked by a trend towards increased spending and taxation and reducing funding for defense. The current government of Andrea Rasana is attempting to pass laws to reduce the taxation rate in Goias and massively increase defense spending.

[Goias]

Demography

As of the most recent census (2005), the population of Goias is estimated to be around 6.526 billion people. The population density is around 180 per km², and is substantially higher in the south compared to the northern highlands. According to last year's estimates, the population growth rate was 0.09%. About 72% of the population lives in urban areas, with the largest cities being the capital Arasar, Garés, Senik, Estro and Ladeira, while important regional centres also include Yetra, Nàrsia, Xair City (Xairshdaat), Saíran, Gyschberg, Athena and Novo Porto.

Goias is a "minority-majority state" (a term which has nothing to do with the similar term used in the USA), being formed mostly of ethnic groups that immigrated to the region independently. The following ethnic groups are recognized by the state: the English, Portuguese, Greeks, Armenians, Germans, Zerians, Limburgians, Tomesians, Zinerans, Sinerauls, Nheji, Yaskans and Erlàns. English and Goian are the country's official languages, the former being adopted mostly as a compromise because of familliarity, while the other languages are official in the regions where each ethnic group predominates.

There is no official religion in Goias, but various religious groups operate freely without any government interference. The most widespread are the Christians (mostly Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Protestants), Muslims, Jews and indigenous religions, with a significant minority of Quakers. Mormons have a very small presence in the city of Senik, and are generally regarded as friendly but a bit peculiar by Goians. Scientology is officially classified as a dangerous cult and not allowed to operate in Goias.

[Goias]

Government and political system

Administrative divisions

Demographic map. Map by Saru, text by me.

Goias is a mostly federal state, allowing a great deal of autonomy and self-government for its political subdivisions. The country is divided into 27 provinces and four autonomous regions, while each province is in turn divided into smaller municipalities. Arasar is designated as the "capital district" and is considered a special administrative division.

Provinces:
1. Adarye (capital: Yetra)
2. North Zarian (capital: Gix)
3. South Zarian (capital: Nasgha)
4. Herlan (capital: Nàrsia)
5. Lusitania (capital: Novo Porto)
6. Ellada (capital: Athena)
7. Lagland (capital: Gyschberg)
8. Hye (capital: Lectun)
9. Daónez (capital: Thaka)
10. Almeida (capital: Tejo)
11. Merj-Aumát (capital: Anapat)
12. Tsikona (capital: Kazín)
13. Nazar (capital: Yasú)
14. Western Ramye (capital: Izar)
15. Eastern Ramye (capital: Blaustadt)
16. Umwegland (capital: Utsrón)
17. Makarces (capital: Tras)
18. Altsira (capital: Yanán)
19. Dzarna (capital: Gasyr)
20. Gershyr (capital: Garés)
21. Envadra (capital: Senik)
22. Layzen (capital: Estro)
23. Krezda (capital: Ladeira)
24. Goasayna (capital: Meves)
25. Tomes (capital: Yrsidyr)
26. Jen (capital: Udeca)
27. Xairstan (capital: Xair City)

Special districts:
1. Arasar

Autonomous regions:
1. Zineran Autonomous Region (capital: Saíran)
2. Sineraul Autonomous Region (capital: Zaul)
3. Yaskan Autonomous Region (capital: Azín)
4. Nhej Autonomous Region (capital: Dhajar)

In all provinces, a provincial assembly is elected every four years, with the number of seats determined by the province's population. The resulting provincial government has the responsibility of overseeing the functioning of healthcare, education and law enforcement, with the ability to set its own regional taxes and manage federal funds. Municipalities in turn have their own governments, cooperating with the regional governments at all times to streamline the governing process.

Several rural municipalities, villages and small towns do not have their own governments. Instead, they are governed by their local police department. This is the norm in eastern and western Yeshin due to the municipalities' relatively isolated locations and access difficulties, and it also takes place in settlements with small-to-medium sized populations. The only exception to this rule are the cities of Yetra and Xair City and where by tradition its local police department holds authority and all candidates for the office of Mayor are police officers.

[Kylarnatia]

Dear Goias,

We would like to ask for your permission to place this information in are Kylarnatian Records House. This is basically where we keep all the Information of the nations outside of us.

Sinsirly,
Mrs. Zoey Necrofear
Standing in for Mrs. Angel Necrofear
Director of the Kylarnatian Museum & Kylarnatian Records House

----- Basically what I do is save nations factbooks in a word document and save it in a folder.

[Goias]

Dear Goias,

We would like to ask for your permission to place this information in are Kylarnatian Records House. This is basically where we keep all the Information of the nations outside of us.

Sinsirly,
Mrs. Zoey Necrofear
Standing in for Mrs. Angel Necrofear
Director of the Kylarnatian Museum & Kylarnatian Records House

----- Basically what I do is save nations factbooks in a word document and save it in a folder.

OK, but please delete this post once you do. I don't want to have posts by others until I'm done, because then it will just make the whole factbook look messed up.

[Kylarnatia]

Dear Goias,

We would like to ask for your permission to place this information in are Kylarnatian Records House. This is basically where we keep all the Information of the nations outside of us.

Sinsirly,
Mrs. Zoey Necrofear
Standing in for Mrs. Angel Necrofear
Director of the Kylarnatian Museum & Kylarnatian Records House

----- Basically what I do is save nations factbooks in a word document and save it in a folder.

OK, but please delete this post once you do. I don't want to have posts by others until I'm done, because then it will just make the whole factbook look messed up.

---- Yeah....I tried but its not letting me...

[Goias]

Political system

Goias was previously a presidential republic between 1945-1962, but reforms enacted in 1962 in reaction to the presidency of Jeru Saroyan transformed the country into a federal parliamentary republic, a system which remains in use today.

The Goian Parliament holds supreme authority in Goias, according to the Constitution. The Parliament is responsible for choosing the Prime Minister, who then appoints his government. There is no clear-cut separation between legislative and executive powers, which are shared by the Prime Minister and the Parliament, while the judicial branch is completely independent and represented by the Supreme Court of Goias. Judicial review of proposed laws is compulsory.

The Parliament used to be unicameral between 1945-2012, but the system eventually became unworkable due to the country's population growth. Under Andrea Rasana's government, the chamber became bicameral in 2012, split between the Senate and the House of Deputies.

Legislation can be initiated by either MPs or members of the government. MPs are elected using the proportional representation system for a mandate of four years, while Presidents are elected using the two-round plurality system. The President is mostly a ceremonial head of state with limited powers (think Germany). Alterations to the Constitution of Goias required approval by 2/3rds of all MPs between 1945-2012 and now by both chambers of Parliament, a restriction which has led to very few such alterations being proposed and even fewer being accepted.

The current government of Goias is as follows:

-President: Serafim Nayru

-Prime Minister: Andrea Rasana
-Ministry of Interior Affairs: Johan Pàrts
-Ministry of Finances: Ayna Lucas
-Ministry of Foreign Relations: Seima Raturjan
-Ministry of Defence: Deborah Tallan
-Ministry of Health: Bárbara Gonçalves
-Ministry of Justice: Ekoryah Triacyn
-Ministry of Culture: Louise Schneider
-Ministry of Environment: Séaiter Uerjan
-Ministry of Education: Dorotéia Edite-Nasín
-Ministry of Transport: Sally Etora
-Ministry of Tourism: Tyanka Eyjan
-Chief Representative of Parliament: David Schröder

Elections in Goias have been held every four years since 1976, with the President and the legislature being simultaneously chosen using a "double ballot". Goian law specifies that all duties related to organising elections, collecting and counting the votes are performed by the National Police, assisted by electoral workers employed by the Ministry for Interior Affairs (however, the electoral workers' presence is limited, and it is common for polling stations to lack them entirely). Citizens are only required to register once, and their name and data are preserved in the strictly protected National Voter Archives, with alterations only required if they move to a different municipality. Votes are conducted electronically, generally using an adapted DRE voting machine system - registered voters are issued special cards that they will introduce into the machine before casting their vote to confirm their identity. Internet voting is also widely used, while absentee voting is allowed through both postal voting and early voting. According to Goian electoral law, it is mandatory for all ballots cast in polling stations to be recorded in a so-called "paper trail" to prevent any attempts at fraud. There are three ways of creating the record, with the option left entirely up to the voter - he can either:
* go back to the polling station and allow one of the staff to transcribe the result (which is encrypted into the special card), and the transcription is subsequently placed into a "safe box"
* write down the result himself and place it into the "safe box"
* be accompanied by a policewoman into the voting booth, who will transcribe the result and place it into the "safe box" (this is the most popular option)

Voter turnout in Goias is generally very high, being around 82% nationally.

[Goias]

Political parties

Goian politics since independence have mostly been dominated by the Socialist Party and its successor, the Moderate Socialist Party. The Conservative Party and its successor, the Popular Democratic Party, have only managed to win four elections for the post of Prime Minister (1964, 1976, 2000, 2004) and five for the Presidency (1959, 1969, 1980, 2000, 2004).

The country's major political parties are as follows:

Moderate Socialist Party (MSP)

Currently holding the government and Presidency and the party with the longest periods in government in the history of Goias (1972-1976, 1980-2000, 2006-present). A centre-left party popular among the working class, middle class, students, farmers, police officers and women. It supports: a mixed economy, the welfare state, universal healthcare, flexicurity, a strong police and army, progressive taxation, environmentalism, regional autonomy and social liberalism.

The MSP was formed in 1972 through the fusion of the Socialist Party and the Social Democrat Party.

Popular Democratic Party (PDP)

The nation's main centre-right party, supported by the upper class, religious folks and the older generation. It agrees in principle with the MSP's goals of a strong, egalitarian Goias but it differs in details: it wants more freedom for private enterprises, a reduction of state bureaucracy, a scaled-down welfare state, lower taxes and is socially conservative. Prone to long periods of unpopularity and being regarded with skepticism by the population due to its formerly radical past and bad luck once in power.

The PDP was formed in 1962 as a centre-right alternative to the formerly very right-wing Conservative Party, which eventually collapsed in 1966.

National Liberal Party (NLP)

A liberal party and the third largest party in Goias. It is practically the equivalent of Germany's FDP, and its ideology follows the basics of classical liberalism, having as central tenets individual freedom, the free market and limited government. While the principle of the market economy is held sacrosanct and the need for occasional government intervention is acknowledged, the NLP supports reforming the welfare state, reducing bureaucracy, deregulation, subsidy reform, replacing the progressive taxation system with a flat tax, decentralisation and a parliamentary system, tax cuts and non-intervention in social matters. Its support derives mostly from the middle class and the youth due to its centrism, as its supporters disagree with both the MSP (believing that excessive socialism will hurt the country) and the PDP (whom they regard as the MLP in disguise).

The party was formed in 1964, and were previously in power as part of coalition governments with the MSP (1974-1976) and PDP (1976-1980, 2004-2006).

Green Party (GP)

The nation's main environmentalist party, basically the equivalent to Germany's Alliance 90/The Greens. Its main preoccupation is environmental problems. They support strict limits on pollution, "green" agriculture, clean energy and oppose nuclear power. Outside environmental issues they are a liberal party, supporting the use of army only for self-defense, current drug, abortion and prostitution laws and opposing discrimination in all its forms. Formed in 1970, they frequently support the MSP in Parliament due to their similar programs and have entered a coalition government with the MSP between 1980-1984.

Communist Party of Goias (CPG)

Established in 1945, the CPG serves as a more "leftist" party for those dissatisfied with the MSP, regularly winning about 10% of votes. It is not completely opposed to the MSP and Is open to the prospect of a MSP-CPG coalition, but this has not happened yet.

Minor parties:

Morals and Life Party (MLP)

An even more conservative fringe party than the PDP, established in 1967 for rightists disillusioned with the PDP's move to the centre and the CP's collapse. While initially only slightly more rightist than the PDP, its ideology has evolved into an extremist, broadly paleoconservative one with an emphasis on social and cultural conservatism. Their platform includes: opposing "moral relativism", criminalizing abortion and stem cell research, withdrawing the recognition of same-sex marriages and the rights that go along with them, removing the barrier between church and state, banning drugs and prostitution, introducing a strict censorship law, introducing the death penalty, adopting school uniforms and reintroducing corporal punishment, criminalizing sexual relations outside marriage and homosexuality and reversing the changes caused by the feminist movement. The latter point is to be accomplished by banning women from holding any jobs, removing their civil rights and right to vote, introducing a severe public dress code with accompanying harsh penalties for contravening it, a mandatory fertility law (as in, every married couple must have at least one daughter or face consequences) and decriminalizing assault against women and rape.

Surprisingly enough, they won the regional election in the isolated nothern region of Xairstan in 1969, but that was on a moderate conservative platform and before their evolution towards radical and extremist politics. They have never won any elections since, and their support hovers around 1%.

Historical parties:

National Independence Party of Goias (NIPG)

Established in 1928 by Tsikan Sanyan, the NIPG was a "big tent" centrist-nationalist party that demanded Goias' independence from Nezrak above everything else. After this was won the NIPG was in power as part of an interim administration between 1945-1949 and then as the country's first elected government between 1949-1959, during which time they laid the basis of Goias' successful mixed economy and introduced socially liberal measures. Despite Sanyan's success and popularity the NIPG became unstable and prone to infighting, which is considered the main reason why they lost the presidential election to Jeru Saroyan in 1959. The party split in 1962, and its members moved on to the Socialist Party.

Conservative Party (CP)

Formed in 1950, the CP was the country's principal right-wing party for its first decade, being led by Jeru Saroyan. While its infighting was not as public as the NIPG's, it also suffered from tension between the moderate and the conservative wings of the party (Jeru belonged to the latter).

It won the 1959 presdential election, however Jeru Saroyan's presidency proved to be a disaster for the party. He immediately became unpopular due to his conservative social policy (banning women from joining the National Police, the "militarization" of education which was widely rejected and ignored) and the revelation that he had worked for the Nezraki regional governor during the occupation. Saroyan was thrown out of the party in 1961, serving for the rest of his term as an independent officeholder. Weakened by the moderate wing of the party leaving en masse to form the PDP in 1962, the CP were wiped out in the next elections by the Socialists and finally collapsed in 1966.

Socialist Party (SP)

Formed in 1949, it was the country's main leftist party for its first decades as an independent nation, with its policies advocating a mixed economy combining private enterprise with government regulation and nationalization of important areas of the economy. While enjoying moderate electoral success and supporting the NIPG until 1959, it truly shot to national attention for its spirited opposition to Saroyan and spearheading the 1962 constitutional convention that reduced the President's powers and established the office of Prime Minister, turning Goias into a parliamentary republic. The SP received a boost from an influx of former NIPG members in 1962 and managed to win the 1964 presidential elections.

The SP entered government for the first time in 1969 under the leadership of Tsikan Sanyan's daughter Renata, under whom they merged with the ascending Social Democratic Party in 1972 to form the Moderate Socialist Party.

[Goias]

Law enforcement

Law enforcement in Goias falls largely under the juristdiction of the Ministry for Interior Affairs, but for practical purposes the entire apparatus is decentralized. The police forces were divided into three main branches, but a 1989 law reduced it to two, which are as follows:

The National Police



Motto: Guardians of justice and freedom

The National Police (NP) is the main police force of Goias, entrusted with the main duties of policing in the country, and with an estimated 300 million employees in total. Goias is divided into various juristdictions, urban and rural, each of which has its own police department responsible for upholding the law in the area. In general, these juristdictions coincide with the extent of a city, a village or any otherwise census-designated settlement, with a high degree of coordination between the police departments various juristdictions. The NP frequently collaborates with the elite counter-terrorist forces.

Duties. The NP is the main institution empowered to enforce the law and maintain public safety order within Goias. Thus, it assumes all the duties related to that goal such as protection of life and property, criminal investigations and enforcing regulations, among others.

In addition to its law enforcement duties, the NP maintains its traditionally very broad-based role and preeminent status within Goian society. While other countries have specialised their law enforcement institutions, the NP in Goias retains several additional civil duties as mandated by its charter, including:
* administering the safety of national parks.
* guarding the borders, monitoring immigration and performing customs duties.
* collecting tax income (in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance, either desk-bound or, more commonly, face-to-face).
* quasi-banking duties (safeguarding sums of money deposited at the NP office or with an officer for a specific period of time with no charges or interest).
* mail delivery (in cooperation with the Goias Postal Service).
* organizing elections, collecting and counting votes (assisted by electoral workers from the Ministry of Interior Affairs).
* administering orphanages, organizing foster care and adoption, serving as legal guardians for wards of the state, investigating reports of child abuse.
* certain public health concerns (for example, it has been a widespread tradition since the 1970s to have female police officers administer vaccinations to schoolchildren).

In rural areas and very small cities, the NP has an even larger role due to a tradition of assuming various functions either to complement institutions or compensate for their absence and the nonexistent crime rate. Alongside the above-mentioned duties, the rural NP also performs other functions such as:
* fire-fighting.
* infrastructure maintenance (in cooperation with the Ministry for Transport).
* public health and education (as recruits are allowed to join the NP and then specialize and seek employment in these sectors, and serve in one sector while remaining a member of the NP).
* waste management.
* public transport.
* being in charge of public information and archives.
* governance (rural municipalities, especially in eastern and western Yeshin, villages, small towns and the cities of Yetra and Xair City).

The NP is also integrated within the Goian National Army and classified as a military reserve force, with the possibility of being called to serve during war or peacekeeping operations. As a result all NP recruits receive mandatory military training, and army recruits are allowed to choose to serve in the NP for either personal reasons or as an alternative service if judged unfit for frontline duty. This situation has caused repeated technical arguments over whether the NP is a police force or a gendarmerie, since it is officially an independent police force but also integrated within the GNA.

NP officers receive the following forms of general training besides policing, and have the option of choosing to specialize and seek employment in one of these domains:
* Basic to intermediate medical training.
* Military training.
* Extensive crowd control training.
* Social work training, in cooperation with the Professional Social Workers' Union of Goias (PSWUG).

Organization. The NP is divided in several divisions:
* The General Division
* The Investigative Division
* The Regulation Division (who inspect various government-regulated industries and establishments to assure that they conform to administrative laws and regulations and investigate complaints in this regard)
* The Internal Division (who investigate complaints and reports of police brutality or conduct unbecoming of a police officer)
* The Anti-Corruption Division
* The Income Division (which collects taxes)
* The Border Division (who guard Goias' borders and are responsible for immigration and customs)
* The Transport Security Division (responsible for the security of transports in Goias in general, handles airport security)
* The Child Protection Division
* The Missing Persons Division
* The National Park Division
* The Crowd Police Division
* Specialized units (dealing with certain crimes)

Also, the NP is classified according to which juristdictions it operates in as follows:
* Metropolitan National Police Force (MNPF, operating in all cities and metropolises)
* Provincial National Police Force (PNPF, operating in rural areas)

Appearance. The NP uses separate uniforms according to the gender of the officer, a practice in effect since 1969. Requirements for males are lax, requiring as little as a shirt (blue or white), jeans and the official cap. Female uniforms are very strictly mandated even down to colour requirements and have an almost military appearance, having been created in 1970 to confront the conception within the senior NP apparatus that women were unfit to serve in the NP. These uniforms officially consist of: a white shirt with a black tie, a jacket, gloves and a long skirt, all of which are black, plus an official hat. The official hat is black with a red band, the insignia of the NP and its edges bent upwards, and the coat must be completely buttoned up at all times. There is little environmental flexibility in this case: female officers are required to wear the exact uniform down to the smallest details all the time while on duty, except in plainclothes operations and during bad weather (when they're allowed an additional coat). While initially controversial, these uniforms are now unanimously supported by female officers and have an iconic status in Goias.

Hierarchy. The NP has a paramilitary hierarchical structure. Ranks are as follows, from highest to lowest:

* Commissioner
* Senior Superintendent/Major General
* Superintendent/Major
* Captain
* Chief Inspector
* Inspector
* Lieutenant
* Sergeant
* Officer

Due to the standardized uniforms used by the NP, ranks are designated using a system of coloured diagonal sashes (similar to the presidential sashes, as seen above). The colour code is as follows:

* Commissioner - red
* Senior Superintendent/Major General - dark blue
* Superintendent/Major - light blue
* Captain - yellow
* Chief Inspector - dark green
* Inspector - light green
* Lieutenant - dark gray
* Sergeant - white
* Officer - no sash

Awards. The NP has a centralized awards system which rewards staff members for meritorious service. These can be either medals or insignia that are affixed to the uniform (mostly on the shoulders). While the awards system dates from the NP's inception, its most valuable award, the Decoration of the Republic, was created in 1978. Decorations of the Republic are awarded for acts of extraordinary bravery and heroism, and highly distinguished service in general.

The Decoration of the Republic is bestowed in an annual ceremony and consists of a medal, ribbon and an official uniform. which is mandatory to wear while on duty regardless of environmental conditions or public visibility. The uniforms are similar to the normal NP ones but with slight modifications: the predominant colour is blue instead of black, use of a short skirt instead of a long one for women and a light blue official hat.

History. The NP was established in 1945 as a replacement for the Nezrak Military Police, the previous law enforcement entity active in Goias. Due to the aggressive demeanour of the NMP and institutionalized cases of police brutality, the NP's creation was accompanied by the National Law Enforcement Code (NLEC), a highly-detailed document that listed precisely the police's activities, obligations and restrictions, the latter including several strict provisions against behaviour that would infringe on civil rights. From now on, warrants were required for arrest or searching for evidence, warrant-less detention was limited to a week, political crimes were abolished and the concepts of due process and habeas corpus were codified.

The problem of discrimination has caused intense controversy in the past. While the administration of President Tsikan Sanyan had not restricted police membership in any way, the NLEC did not contain any provisions for discrimination as police misconduct - the latter category was introduced as part of a 1981 package of reforms. His successor, Jeru Saroyan, introduced the Membership Amandment to the NLEC in 1959, allowing only men to serve in the NP. While women previously only reached about 1% of the total police force and only took "desk-bound" jobs (mostly as social workers), this act triggered controversy and a massive uproar. After the election of a Socialist administration in 1964 there was an attempt to repeal the amendment, but the repeal failed to gain a majority in Parliament. After two other repeals failed, a watered-down modification was introduced in 1966 and narrowly approved, allowing women to serve in non-public divisions of the NP. Another amendment was introduced in 1969, which allowed women to serve in the NP but only in the General Division and with separate uniforms while in public. The amendment only caused further controversy due to the strict requirements compared to the lax regulations for males, lack of flexibility depending on environmental conditions and the fact that there was an unofficial "glass ceiling" in effect whereby women could not be promoted beyond the rank of Sergeant. This unofficial "glass ceiling" was abolished in 1971 with the landmark lawsuit of Anna Sigun, the first female police officer to join the General Division in 1969.

Eventually, the restriction amendments became unpopular among majority of Goians, and PM Daezín Sanyan managed to introduce a reform package in 1981 which canceled all previous amendments and erased any discriminatory language in the NLEC, but kept the female uniforms (motivated by a landmark survey about people's perceptions of NP officers according to gender). While women began joining the NP in moderate numbers after the 1966 and 1969 amendments, after Sanyan's reform and a massive reorganization of the NP cadres the NP has made massive strides in recruiting women to avoid being seen as reactionary. As a result, today women represent 95,7% of the national police force, with all PNPF and all but four MNPF juristdictions having all-female NP staff. A final attempt to abolish female uniforms was overwhelmingly defeated in 1985. The female uniforms have since gained unanimous support among the NP and an iconic status for the public, being seen as a symbol of authority and respectability instead of discrimination. Recent surveys have also indicated that Goians tend to overwhelmingly trust female police officers more than male ones due to a variety of factors, while a separate survey among students reveals that a large majority of women aspire towards a career in the NP.

Public perception. Due to various factors such as the NLEC being introduced alongside the NP to prevent the authoritarianism and brutality of the Nezrakis, swift prosecution of police officers due to lack of immunity, incredibly strict discipline, emphasis on community policing, various internal practices (obligatory period in General Division for any new recruit before specialization, instant suspension or firing for anyone accused of misconduct, the expectation that officers with long-term assignments know all the residents of a neighbourhood personally), and most importantly the additional civil duties performed by the NP, Goians do not have the same cynical, negative opinion of the police force that is common to other countries.

The NP is regarded as a necessary and important institution for the functioning of the state, more down-to-earth and effective compared to the police forces of Goias' neighbours. The NP's pervasive and heavily-armed presence throughout the country is considered essential for the almost nonexistent crime rate in the country and its additional duties are also considered to be an essential service for Goian society. Due to this virtuous circle of large exposure, candid demeanour and combination of law enforcement with performance of important public services, the NP enjoys a very prestigious reputation within the country, consistently ranking very high in surveys regarding Goians' trust of public institutions and even reaching the top position repeatedly.

Equipment. The National Police is equipped with bulletproof armour (since 1982), pistols, shotguns, batons and pepper spray. Heavy armament can be deployed in dangerous missions. According to the 1981 amendment to the NLEC, female police officers have special "armament privileges" under which it is mandatory for them to carry a submachinegun and an assault rifle at all times (concealment is optional, many opt to openly display them). When in crowd control situations, besides submachineguns and assault rifles they are equipped with helmets, batons and shields. Tear gas has been banned since 1969 due to its abuse. Water cannons can be deployed to disperse crowds only in case of severe violence and chaos.


The Special Operations and Counter-Terrorism Bureau

Motto: Unknown.

The Special Operations and Counter-Terrorism Bureau (SOCTB), informally known as Police Division 15, is Goias' counter-terrorism and special operations unit. It was established in 1984 for the purpose of handling very difficult or life-threatening situations such as hostage taking, terrorism and armed kidnapping, to name just a few.

The SOCTB's activities and membership are completely classified by the government, and thus no reports of its operations are known. The only publicly known information is that the SOCTB is in constant contact and cooperation with the NP and the Bureau of Intelligence Operations (BIO) to the point that all three agencies are intertwined, and that SOCTB agents wear NP uniforms.

Equipment. The SOCTB's equipment is unknown to the public.


DEFUNCT


The Crowd Control Police Force (The Riot Police)

Motto: Order and security

The Riot Police, officially the Crowd Control Police Force (CCPF), were established in 1960 after the NP's disastrous handling of the now-infamous Dzerjin Street Protest in Arasar, when the NP forces attacked and brutalised a crowd of non-violent protesters against the Membership Amendment on 20 December 1959. The resulting investigative comission determined that the NP were poorly equipped and trained for crowd control. The CCPF was established as a separate branch of the police force specially trained for crowd control soon after.

The CCPF were not popular among the public initially, being commonly accused of excessive force and maltreatment of crowds. An attempt to "clean up" the force was made in 1969 through the introduction of a more strict code of conduct, but the CCPF's reputation did not improve, and it was continuously accused of creating police riots, contravening its stated mission and engaging in corrupt behaviour. Due to this behaviour, the riot police were discredited in the eyes of the Goian populace, the NP were increasingly called to supervise crowds instead of the CCPF. As time went on the NP were officially given crowd control training and began to supervise more and more public gatherings and protests instead of the CCPF, being more popular thanks to their professionalism and restraint, intervening only when necessary.

Eventually the NP proved to be so successful that the CCPF was marginalised and ended up pretty much useless. They were finally disbanded as an independent force in 1989, being absorbed by the NP and becoming the "crowd police division".

[Goias]

Foreign affairs

Due to its traditionally isolated position and history of being conquered by other, imperialistic countries, Goias has long neglected foreign affairs since independence. While its basic foreign policy has been based since independence on the tenets of respect for democracy, human rights and civil liberties, almost all governments since 1945 have cited the "principle of neutrality" as an excuse for their disinterest in foreign affairs. Apart from foreign trade and some links with foreign countries, Goias was mostly isolated, being too focused on internal affairs and economic development to concentrate on foreign policy. As a result, Goias grew to be a common target of jokes due to the fact that a country of such a large size, population and economic strength had a non-existent profile in international affaris.

This policy has been broken by the government of Prime Minister Esím Sanjedan, who has made a more active foreign policy one of the central planks of his successful 2008 election. Sanjedan's actions towards that goal so far have included establishing several embassies, joining the Archipelago of the Seychelles region, and increasing the defence budget and foreign aid.

As a result of intrigues and a stated desire on the part of the Seychelles' representative to remove the Seychelles from the Commonwealth of Nations, Goias relocated to the Kingdom of Middle Earth on October 24, 2009.

Prime Minister Andrea Rasana's government established an embassy program on December 23, 2009, placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Countries that have established embassies in Goias include:

- La Habana

Countries that Goias has established an embassy in include:

- Gynocracy
- Ostronopolis
- Reijavjik
- Chrobalta
- Furyjenko
- The Master M
- Toddosia
- Maraque
- The Union of Myanmar
- Jalanat
- Almajoya
- Republica Espanola
- Deukalionnic Republics
- Grays Harbor
- DeusII
- Joyous Zeltros
- New Olwe
- Nouvelle Rhodes
- Libertarian Governance
- Rajesthan

[Goias]

Military

The Goian National Army (GNA), established in 1945, is under the authority of the Ministry for Defence, which has as its main responsibilities the operation of the armed forces of Goias in both peacetime and wartime. The armed forces are divided as follows:
* The Army (GA)
* The Air Force (GAF)
* The Navy (GN)

(these acronyms are meant to prevent confusion between any specific branch and the army as a whole)

The GNA also includes the NP, classified as a reserve force which can be called for active duty at any time.

In terms of tactics, the GNA relies mainly on a combination of heavily-armed infantry supported by armour and infantry with guerilla warfare tactics, and is famous for its ability to fortify and defend very difficult positions, a skill it has applied in the Independence War of 1945-1949 and has rigorously trained in ever since.

While technically the head of the armed forces is the Prime Minister, in reality this task is delegated to the Supreme Defense Council, which advises the PM during wartime situations. Declarations of war can be made by the PM, but they must be approved by Parliament and sanctioned by the President.

Hierarchy. The GNA's hierarchy is somewhat copied from Western models, and has three different sets of ranks depending on branch. For the army, the hierarchy is as follows:

* Field Marshal
* General
* Brigadier
* Colonel
* Lt. Colonel
* Major
* Captain
* Lieutenant
* Sub-Lieutenant
* Officer Cadet
* Sergeant Major
* Sergeant
* Corporal
* Private

For the navy:

* Admiral of the Fleet
* Admiral
* Commodore
* Captain
* Commander
* Lt. Commander
* Lieutenant
* Sub-Lieutenant
* Ensign
* Midshipman
* Warrant Officer
* Petty Officer
* Leading Rate
* Private

For the air force:

* Marshal of the Air Force
* Air Marshal
* Air Commodore
* Captain
* Wing Commander
* Major
* Flight Lieutenant
* Lieutenant
* Pilot Officer
* Officer Cadet
* Warrant Officer
* Sergeant
* Corporal
* Private

To prevent confusion between ranks with similar names between branches, generally after writing the rank there will be an addition, depending on rank: officers (all ranks above Sgt Major or Warrant Officer) will have the acronym of the branch they serve in added after the rank, while soldiers will have "(Infantryman)", "(Airman)" or "(Seaman)" added after the rank, regardless of gender.

Appearance. The GNA, due to its hasty conception and lack of involvement in wars for entire generations after independence, does not have a strong or very old tradition of using military uniforms. Independence forces generally joined the army and fought wearing whatever they had on their person, only having armour provided by their commanders. After 1949, the law officially mandated the use of a loosely defined uniform consisting of green or khaki clothes (generally jackets), a backpack containing rations and necessary additional equipment, heavy footwear and helmets, as seen below:


GNA soldiers during a training exercise

This is universally used for soldiers among all branches, with minor colour variations for distinction (green/khaki for the ground force, blue for navy, grey for the air force). However, as a result of legislative oversight there were no specifications for higher ranks in the 1949 law. These were codified in 1950, being largely copied from models used by Western armies. As a result of inactivity and lack of tradition, Goias traditionally does not distinguish between "ceremonial dress" and "combat dress" despite laws mandating such divisions (meant to "harmonise" the GNA with modern customs).

Additional uniforms are in use for female recruits and NP members. While there were female soldiers during the independence war serving as combatants, they largely drifted towards the NP after that period. While there was no actual ban on women joining the GNA, the few who joined were generally relegated to so-called "desk positions" during the 1950s, with new combatants only sworn in starting with 1968. As part of a push by the government to reemphasise defense and "professionalise" the inactive army, the NP was integrated with the GNA in 1976 and new uniforms were decreed with various laws in 1978, 1982 and 1989, which are still in use.

Women serving in the ground force during battle conditions use the same basic uniform, as seen here during training:



Whereas outside of battlefields, training and during special occasions, women wear a ceremonial uniform consisting of suit and tie, gloves, coat and cap. There are minor colour variations and some may be more elaborate than others, but the basic appearance is as follows:





Women serving in the navy officially wear a blue shirt (tie optional) along with black jacket, skirt, gloves and headwear (either helmets or hats), copied after 1940s-era uniforms, as follows:



Whereas women who serve in the navy as officers or higher ranks have roughly the same outfit but with silver buttons and a few colour variations for the jacket (mainly navy blue, black or white, depending on rank), as follows:





NP officers have a "hybrid" uniform, wearing a slightly modified version of the navy uniform that's intended to bring it closer to the NP one (mandatory tie, silver buttons instead of black), and their official NP hat.

Very highly decorated officers are issued ceremonial uniforms formed of a black coat with white epaulettes, white gloves, a black hat and ceremonial swords, as seen here:




Equipment. The GNA is equipped with firearms (light and heavy), mortars, tanks, artillery (regular and anti-air), vehicles (tactical, heavy and armoured), helicopters, planes (bombers and fighters), various ships (destroyers, cruisers, carriers, battleships) and other equipment. The main weapons used by soldiers of all branches are the AK-47 assault rifle, the MP5 submachinegun, the SPAS-12 shotgun and the Beretta M9 pistol.

Strength. Defense has been a long-neglected priority after the Nezrak Empire's dissolution, and several governments have made repeated cuts to the defense budget over the years, to the point that the army had to reduce its size in order to maintain its training quality, but not to a very drastic level. However, this policy has been reversed by the Sanjedan government, which has started to increase the defense budget massively and plans to have the army be more involved in foreign peacekeeping missions as part of its promise for a more active foreign policy.

As of 2009, Goias spends approximately 818 billion R$ on defense, a figure that is planned to rise substantially. The government has made plans to recruit more soldiers and begin peacekeeping missions and deployments in theatres of war. After a lot of deliberation, a draft has been instituted by the Sanjedan government in 2008, making national service mandatory for all legal adults irrespective of gender for a period of either 1-2 years (with the option of continuing service as a professional) and mandatory service during wartime. Opt-outs and alternative services are allowed for health reasons, conscientious objectors, people with deferments and those judged fit for service but unfit for combat. This measure so far has been approved by Goians, whose support is dictated by eagerness to assume a role in foreign policy more befitting the country's stature.

The current number of active troops amounts to a total of around 20 million, including active forces, reservists and support personnel. Out of these, the active forces number around 14 million, while the reservists are around 6 million, with the ratio of active:reserve being equally spread in the branches. These figures do not include recent conscripts (the law is too fresh to start measurements) and the 300 million NP officers which are counted as a reserve force, but if these are counted Goias would officially have an army of 320 million composed mostly of reservists. Officially, out of the total 20 million soldiers, the division is as follows:

Army: 8 million
Navy: 7 million
Air Force: 5 million

The state also traditionally includes gender as part of its statistics for the NP and GNA, a measure dating back to the troubled integration of the two branches. While the Army and the Air Force are each male-majority with reasonable minorities (female recruits forming 25% and 10% of each respective branch), the Navy has traditionally been the most female-friendly branch of the GNA, with the result being that 85% of all soldiers serving in the Navy are women. Thus, if one includes the NP in statistics, the majority of Goian soldiers are women.

Organisation. The country is categorised into roughly 10 military sectors, centered around various military bases and training camps spread throughout its territory. The GNA itself is divided by branch according to the typical modern hierarchy. Thus, for the army it is as follows:

1. army group
2. field army
3. corps
4. division
5. brigade
6. regiment
7. battalion
8. company
9. platoon
10. patrol
11. squad

For the navy ships (sailors and amphibious forces are still counted using the land forces hierarchy):

1. fleet
2. battle fleet
3. task group
4. squadron
5. flotilla
6. task element

And for the air force:

1. numbered air force
2. wing
3. group
4. squadron
5. flight
6. section

The only notable anomaly in the otherwise typical organisation of the GNA is that the Navy has several large military formations (generally brigades, divisions and regiments) that only allow women to join them. They are generally categorised as "Brigade (W)", "Division (W)", "Regiment (W)" and so on.

[The State of Monavia]

You have a very detailed and informative factbook. I find it much to my liking and hope that you continue to keep up the good work!

[Goias]

You have a very detailed and informative factbook. I find it much to my liking and hope that you continue to keep up the good work!

Thanks. I'm warning you in advance that I might chicken out on the "Culture" section since that's a really complicated domain...

[The State of Monavia]

You have a very detailed and informative factbook. I find it much to my liking and hope that you continue to keep up the good work!

Thanks. I'm warning you in advance that I might chicken out on the "Culture" section since that's a really complicated domain...

That's not a problem. I have not added a history or culture section to my factbook, as it would end up being a lengthy project to somplete, taking weeks. Thus, I understand your prediciment.

[Goias]

Education and health

Ever since independence, education and healthcare have been important priorities for all Goian governments. All education in Goias is free, government-subsidised from kindergarten up to university level and mandatory between the ages of 7 and 16. Private schools also exist and are allowed to operate as long as they conform to the national minimum requirements for the curriculum, being funded using the school voucher system.

Education in Goias largely has the following subdivisions:
* kindergarten (ages 4-7)
* primary school (ages 7-14)
* secondary school (ages 14-18)
* university (lasting between 3 and 5 years)
* post-graduate education (personal choice)

Goias has many universities, the oldest and largest of which are in the five main cities, Arasar, Garés, Senik, Estro and Ladeira.

Students which attend high schools and universities outside their hometowns are given the option of staying in low-cost, mass-produced, tract-housing styled apartment buildings in the city, or in the latter case to live on campus. These apartment buildings are generally mocked for their clinical, sterile and depressing appearance, and universally referred to by the nickname "ejanse" (derived from the Armenian "ezhanagin", meaning "cheap", and German "scheisse", meaning "crap").

Goias law bans the use of corporal punishment, previously used by the decentralised 18th century system and Nezraki authorities. During the reviled Jeru Saroyan presidency (1959-1964) uniforms and corporal punishment were instituted, but the laws were so wildly unpopular that few people bothered to follow them or attempt to enforce them. The laws were repealed by William Narayan (1964-1967), who also introduced a new law to block any future attempts to institute Saroyan-style "militarization". However, Andrea Rasana's government has reinstituted mandatory uniforms in all schools beginning with 2013.

Schools will generally have very small class sizes in order to prevent the problem of larger classes, that of one teacher being unable to command the attention of unruly students. A class generally has between 10-15 students. However, certain schools have larger classes by necessity due to the large population of the area.

The entire public education system is gender-integrated, with gender-segregated schools being seen as outdated and damaging towards the social development of students, and the rule of separation between church and state is observed. Students are allowed to wear religious symbols while in school, but no religious iconography can be displayed in class, official prayers or any display of favouritism towards a religion are forbidden, and religious education classes do not exist in public schools and most private schools.

Religious schools are allowed, with almost 100.000 of them existent throughout Goias. Most of these are run by the three main religious churches in the country (Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant), with a few of them (somewhere between 10-20) established by the Muslim and Jewish minorities. These schools are mostly staffed by priests and nuns and do not conform to the more lackadaisical, "basic rules and otherwise laissez-faire" mindset of public schools, instead having more stringent discipline and "unofficial" uniforms between 1949-2012. The schools have frequently gotten into legal trouble with the state and federal governments due to the prohibition on school uniforms and accusations of practicing corporal punishment, but have avoided consequences by claiming that they are not required while in reality using threats and sometimes even blackmail to coerce students into wearing them. The religious schools have been nicknamed "tartar-edafos" (Greek for "hellground") and are frequently a target of jokes and criticism for their perceived "extremist" and "oppressive" approach to education, but are reasonably popular and well-attended. They have been the target of repeated investigations, with controversy erupting in 2008 after the closing of all the girls' schools in Yetra (including Hadrian Hills, Isvèr, Denic, Kyaroser, Dòryc, Sheirasi and Maen schools) and the prosecution of their respective staff for use of corporal punishment and endemic physical, sexual and emotional abuse towards the students. However, PM Andrea Rasana signed a decree reforming the education system in 2013, that included granting official immunity to the religious schools. During her term the schools increased from 10.000 throughout the country to 100.000 and gained more students, but with continued allegations of endemic abuse and controversial accusations that the religious schools had given kickbacks to Rasana in exchange for the bill.

Healthcare in Goias is delivered using a system of universal healthcare, provided through a combination of federal and state-run health boards. The federal government imposes the standards for quality of care and provides additional funding for the states in various degrees (ranging from half to a quarter of total expenditure), while states have the responsibility of funding their healthcare through local taxes (supplemented by federal funds) and regulating the operation of hospitals in line with national standards. While some services are provided by private entities, especially the more specialised ones and the ones not covered by insurance, private healthcare as a whole is not allowed. Doctors derive their income from annual salaries instead of fees per visit. The pharmaceutical industry is highly government-regulated and partly government-owned, in order to prevent artificial price inflation.

[Azzers]

cool