The United Socialist States of Zadelia is a colossal, safe nation, notable for its smutty television, state-planned economy, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic population of 2.85 billion Augustans 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, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Welfare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Augusta. The average income tax rate is 71.3%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The Zadelian economy, worth 162 trillion Dollars a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector is led by the Book Publishing industry, with major contributions from Information Technology and Tourism. Average income is 56,960 Dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Grinding bureaucracy has the international wheels of justice turning slowly, the government regularly reassures citizens that there are no monsters under their beds, the slowest students feel vaguely targeted by their Mendelian Inheritance coursework, and park rangers struggle to deal with a rash of stolen pic-a-nic baskets. Crime is totally unknown. Zadelia's national animal is the Penguin, which frolics freely in the nation's sparkling oceans.

Zadelia is ranked 98,132^nd in the world and 1,221^st in the South Pacific for Most Developed, scoring 62.21 on the Human Development Index.