The Federal Commonwealth of Polarea is a titanic, genial nation, ruled by First Minister Elysia Lynne with a fair hand, and remarkable for its state-planned economy, national health service, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic, cheerful population of 21.537 billion Polareans are free to do what they want with their own bodies, and vote for whomever they like in elections; if they go into business, however, they are regulated to within an inch of their lives.

The enormous, liberal, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Environment. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Göteborg. The income tax rate is 100%.

The frighteningly efficient Polarean economy, worth a remarkable 5,041 trillion Polar Crowns a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is highly specialized, is mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Tourism and Book Publishing. Average income is an amazing 234,093 Polar Crowns, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

First Minister Elysia Lynne's exquisite office door is replaced monthly due to angry petitioners, prisoners can't do number twos without their "toilet buddy" present, pareidolic SETI scientists swear there's a message from aliens hidden within pi, and one-man canoes fitted with the latest tracking technology leave no room for one man. Crime is totally unknown. Polarea's national animal is the Reindeer, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Polarea is ranked 1,043^rd in the world and 1^st in Arctic for Most Eco-Friendly Governments, scoring 15,473.74 on the Dolphin Recycling Awareness Index.