Gandoor National Q&A [READ OP]

[An Islamic World]

How much influence, if any, does religion have on your nation's government?

[Gandoor]

How much influence, if any, does religion have on your nation's government?

Religion has no influence on the Government of Gandoor, the strict separation of church and state is enshrined into the Constitution and this separation is protected in practice as well.

[Alzatia]

What is your nation's biggest "skeleton in the closet", so to speak?

For years, Duchess Veroniek had been kept locked up and confined within the royal palace by her parents, Grand Duke Hinrich-Franz and Grand Duchess Jolande of Alzatia. She was even sexually abused, but nobody suspected anything because Hinrich-Franz and Jolande had the outward appearance of a devout, loving and hard-working couple (even though they were complete monsters behind the castle walls). But their cruelty eventually backfired on them: in 2013, they were shot dead after the abused princess got her hands on one of their hunting rifles. Veroniek then became the Grand Duchess of Alzatia, and the horrific abuses of her parents were finally brought to light. For many people, this news came as quite the shock because Alzatia was a safe and peaceful nation, so things like this were unheard of.

[Pulsroth]

What would a typical day's meals consist of in Gandoor? And does it differ between the rich and poor at all?

[Gylthas]

What side did Gandoor take during the Cold War?

Between 1947 and 1953, our nation was allied with the Soviet Union and was a member of the Eastern Bloc. In 1953, during the premiership of Junichiro Suzuki and two years after the Gandoorese Restoration of Democracy, the alliance with the Soviet Union came to an official end and our nation declared an official stance of neutrality in the Cold War between the West and the East.

Despite this neutrality, however, our nation was considered to be closer to the Western democracies rather than the Eastern authoritarian states between 1953 and the end of the Cold War in 1991, although this was mostly due to fears that we would be thought of as similar to the authoritarian states in the East if we were close to them. (This fear was so entrenched in our government that we actually severed diplomatic relations with most Eastern Bloc states after we ended our alliance with the USSR and didn't restore diplomatic relations with most of them until the mid-70s, early 80s.)

Have you ever considered being like Yugoslavia?

[Natishna]

What was the worst economic crisis your nation ever faced?

[Gandoor]

What would a typical day's meals consist of in Gandoor? And does it differ between the rich and poor at all?

Unfortunately, due to our nation's large and widespread population, it would be impossible to describe what a typical day's meals would look like, as it can vary wildly depending on where you are in the nation.

Between 1947 and 1953, our nation was allied with the Soviet Union and was a member of the Eastern Bloc. In 1953, during the premiership of Junichiro Suzuki and two years after the Gandoorese Restoration of Democracy, the alliance with the Soviet Union came to an official end and our nation declared an official stance of neutrality in the Cold War between the West and the East.

Despite this neutrality, however, our nation was considered to be closer to the Western democracies rather than the Eastern authoritarian states between 1953 and the end of the Cold War in 1991, although this was mostly due to fears that we would be thought of as similar to the authoritarian states in the East if we were close to them. (This fear was so entrenched in our government that we actually severed diplomatic relations with most Eastern Bloc states after we ended our alliance with the USSR and didn't restore diplomatic relations with most of them until the mid-70s, early 80s.)

Have you ever considered being like Yugoslavia?

We did not, although interestingly enough Yugoslavia was a state that we did maintain relations with during the Cold War, considering that they were not aligned with the USSR either.

What was the worst economic crisis your nation ever faced?

The post-war economic crisis which began after the premiership of Alexei Petrikov and the Gandoor Civil War in the 1950s. During the crisis, unemployment reached a peak of 19.6% in 1961 and the gdyn faced increased levels of inflation. In October 1957 (before the crisis officially began in November 1957), 1 GDY was equivalent to US$1.42, but within only two years, it was equivalent to only US$0.36. Luckily, the gdyn did manage to mostly stabilize in value by the early 1960s, with its value ultimately fluctuating between being worth US$0.60 and US$0.73 during the crisis.

The post-war economic crisis came to an official end in 1972, although our nation wouldn't reach pre-civil war economic levels until 1985.

[Gandoor]

We are still open to answering questions.

[Thermodolia]

We are still open to answering questions.

How did your nation handle the covid-19 outbreak?

[Gandoor]

We are still open to answering questions.

How did your nation handle the covid-19 outbreak?

The COVID-what outbreak?

(OOC: The COVID-19 outbreak is considered non-canon in my nation's timeline since we're always five years in the future and such a major RL event would require mass retcons to fit my nation's established history)

[Thermodolia]

When was proportional representation Instituted? Why did y’all settle on proportional representation? What did y’all use before? And why are there only two major parties instead of the coalitions normally seen in proportional systems?

[Free Republic of Hong Kong]

Did many Gandoorese support SSM allowed and did your nation approve of Alexai Petrikov

[Gandoor]

When was proportional representation Instituted? Why did y’all settle on proportional representation? What did y’all use before? And why are there only two major parties instead of the coalitions normally seen in proportional systems?

Proportional representation has officially been used since the establishment of the modern Democratic Republic in 1904 (the first election using proportional representation occurred in 1903, as we actually elected our first Forum prior to the establishment of our current government) and it was adopted due to the belief by most of the revolutionaries, including Chiba Masato (who is widely accepted as leader of the Gandoor Revolution and our nation's first Prime Minister), that it would result in a much more fair and equal system in the legislature.

Before the establishment of our current government, the Nzardom of Gandoor used FPTP single-member districts for elections to the Gandoorese Parliament.

As for why our nation has a two-party system despite having proportional representation. Well, the simple reason is because of how entrenched the Communist and New Democratic Parties are in Gandoorese political history, they're the only two parties remaining that predate the Democratic Republic, after all. For a more historical answer, it was never actually envisioned that proportional representation would result in coalition governments, as odd as that may sound. As stated above, proportional representation was adopted due to the belief that it would result in a more 'fair and equal system', but this was meant on the basis of electoral districts, which would send multiple members to the Forum and the members they sent would be divided proportionally based upon the votes each party got in the district. (Even at this stage, there were technically still more than two parties operating in our nation, but the widespread popularity of the Revolution meant it would've been all-but impossible for parties other than the Communists or NDP to win any seats)

Did many Gandoorese support SSM allowed and did your nation approve of Alexai Petrikov

1. Considering our nation's historical progressive views towards LGBT+ rights, the legalization of same-sex marriage in 1988 was supported by a majority of citizens. A poll taken two months after its legalization with a sample size of 2350 respondents indicated that 55% of all citizens.

2. No, we most certainly did not approve of Alexei Petrikov and his effectively dictatorial rule over our nation. Which is rather obvious when you realize how much our government attempts to avoid being seen of celebrating or commemorating his premiership in any way while still maintaining an active public discourse concerning his era and its affects on our nation.

[Incelastan]

Incels have become the ruling class in our society. But what does Gandoor do about incels in its own borders?

[Macureus]

What is Gandoor's view on Macureus's tough new anti-proselytizing law that forbids any attempt at religious conversion of the underage except by others who are also underage and of the new law forbidding all religious schools and religious broadcasting?

[Gandoor]

Incels have become the ruling class in our society. But what does Gandoor do about incels in its own borders?

Our government pays no mind to the incel movement beyond that is required to prevent any instances of mass murder by these frustrated and pathetic individuals who blame all their problems on women and society instead of themselves. And considering that there have been a grand total of zero instances of mass murder committed by any incels in our nation, it's been working rather well.

What is Gandoor's view on Macureus's tough new anti-proselytizing law that forbids any attempt at religious conversion of the underage except by others who are also underage and of the new law forbidding all religious schools and religious broadcasting?

We have no stance on the anti-proselytizing law, but we condemn the laws forbidding religious schools and religious broadcasting as, while we are a state with strong separation of church and state and a mostly non-religious populous, we consider both of these laws to be an infringement on the freedom of religion. (We admit that this may seem hypocritical since our nation does not officially recognize religious schools, but there are no laws that forbid them, it is only required that students attend a secular public school and that religious schools cannot serve as a complete alternative to secular education)

[Gandoor]

We are still open to answering questions.

[Conservative Christian American States]

How does your nation 'elect' its representatives? (I say this as if socialist nations actually hold real elections, but humor me here at least)

[Gandoor]

How does your nation 'elect' its representatives? (I say this as if socialist nations actually hold real elections, but humor me here at least)

The Democratic Republic utilizes the D'hondt method of party-list proportional representation with a 1% electoral threshold in order to elect Members to the Forum.

Each of our eight administrative divisions sends 125 Members to the Forum who are elected in multi-member districts containing between two and ten seats. The arrangement of these districts is based upon population and, if necessary, are redrawn after each census by multi-partisan committees that must have an equal number representatives from all parties represented in the Forum.

[Sanghyeok]

What measures does Gandoor take to prevent fascism and other right-wing reactionaries sentiments from gaining followers in its borders?

[Gandoor]

What measures does Gandoor take to prevent fascism and other right-wing reactionaries sentiments from gaining followers in its borders?

We don't. The citizens of the Democratic Republic have such an aversion to far-right ideologies such as fascism that there is functionally no need to prevent them from gaining followers.

After all, if the Gandoor Fascist Party (which has existed for sixty years) can't even manage to have two-thousand members, the Government doesn't think of them as being even a blip on our radar.

[Gandoor]

We are still open to answering questions.

[Free Stalliongrad]

Are there extremist and authoritarian fringes among your leftist parties? And if so, do you fight them?

[Gandoor]

Are there extremist and authoritarian fringes among your leftist parties? And if so, do you fight them?

Among our major left-wing parties? No, both the New Democratic Party and the Gandoor Communist Party are fully committed to their non-authoritarian policies and are quick to quash any (extremely rare) attempts to move either party into an authoritarian or extremist direction.

That being said, when it comes to our minor left-wing parties, that is a different thing as they all (with the exception of the Descar Independence Party) have a much more authoritarian-bent than our major left-wing parties.

The Petrikovist Party (which espouses Petrikovism, the ideology of Prime Minister Alexei Petrikov who ruled Gandoor as an effective dictator during the 1940s), the Nationalist Workers' Party (which espouses nationalism and Marxism-Leninsm), and the True Communist Party (which espouses anti-revisionist communism) are all widely recognized as being 'authoritarian and extremist left-wing organizations within Gandoor. However, due to their extremely small memberships (the largest of them, the Petrikovist Party, only having 1200 members), they are also considered to be effectively harmless by the Government of Gandoor, as their 'operations' uniformly consist of nothing more than periodic public marches and demonstrations.

[Republica Federal de Catalunya]

Which are Gandoor's main economic foreign partners?

What are Gandoor's main exports and imports?