Tepertopia (Pacifica)
United Protectorate of Tepertopia Geeintes Protektorat Tepertopia | |
|---|---|
 Flag | |
Motto: Gloria Bonitate "Glory Through Goodness" | |
Anthem: God Guide Our Fair Protector | |
 Location of Tepertopia in the South Pacific | |
| Capital | Happelstein |
| Largest city | Adaca |
| Official languages | Austral |
| Recognised national languages | Alman |
| Demonym(s) | Tepertopian |
| Government | Federal directorial constitutional monarchy |
| Gerhard von Selingen | |
| Legislature | Tepertopian Assembly |
| Formation | |
• First Protectorate | 1024 |
• Monarchy abolished | 1629 |
• Second Protectorate | 1631 |
• Harmonist Tepertopia | 1866 |
• Third Protectorate & Current Constitution | 1889 |
| Area | |
• Total | 12,725 km2 (4,913 sq mi) (32nd) |
| Population | |
• 2020 census | 1,551,411 (30th) |
• Density | 121.9/km2 (315.7/sq mi) (31st) |
| GDP (nominal) | 2022 estimate |
• Total | TSP-$ 60.598 billion (31st) |
• Per capita | TSP-$ 39,059.93 (20th) |
| Currency | Silke (Ꞩ) (SIL) |
| Time zone | UTC-1 (CET) |
| Date format | yyyy-mm-dd (AD) |
| Driving side | right |
| Calling code | +30 |
| Internet TLD | .tt |
Tepertopia, officially the United Protectorate of Tepertopia (Alman: Geeintes Protektorat Tepertopia, [ɡəˈʔaɪ̯ntəs pʁotɛktoˈʁaːt ˌteːpɐˈtoːpi̯a]) is a federation located on an identically named island off the south coast of mainland Crabry in the South Pacific, covering the whole of the 12,725km² of the island. Home to about 1.55 million Tepertopians, the country consists of five Constituent States, themselves comprised of a total of 31 administrative units. It has a maritime border with Jakub to the north, and is otherwise surrounded by international waters. Tepertopia's capital is Happelstein, while Adaca is the largest city; other major urban areas are Lotce, Merpor, Schöffelstadt, and Wesford.
History
Geography
Politics
Tepertopia is a federal, directorial, representative constitutional monarchy governed mainly at two levels, federal and regional. The political system is organized by the Articles of Union (Alman: Bundesakte, [ˈbʊndəsˌaktə]) of 1889, Tepertopia's constitution.
Federal legislative power is exercised by the unicameral Tepertopian Assembly (Alman: Tepertopier Bürgerschaft, [ˌteːpɐˈtoːpi̯ɐ ˈbʏʁɡɐʃaft]), whose 100 Assemblypeople are elected triennially in direct elections using the Evaluative Satisfaction System. Its members are representatives of the whole nation and have a free mandate, subject only to their conscience and the constitutional order. Under the principles of federalism as prescribed in the Articles, legislative power is reserved to the Constituent States unless explicitly granted to the federal legislature, with the Articles establishing a catalogue of such. Furthermore, the Assembly generally enjoys recall powers against all public officials, with only Councilors and High Court Justices exempt.
The executive is headed by the Council of the Union (Alman: Bundesrat, [ˈbʊndəsˌʁaːt]), a directory of eight equal Councilors elected to four-year terms in direct elections under the Preferential Simultaneous System. Each Councilor is elected to a specific department, namely the departments of Defence, Domestic Affairs, Finance, Foreign Affairs, Justice, Progress, Special Affairs, and Welfare. In theory, Councilors have relatively large leeway in running their departments, but due to practical concerns ‒ namely showing outward unity and securing majorities for passing legislation in the Assembly ‒ the Council often decides collectively. Over time, the Councilor for Special Affairs has developed into a primus inter pares leader of the Council.
This order is overseen and protected by the High Court of Tepertopia, the federal judiciary, whose administrative, civil, criminal, fiscal, labour, and social senates act as courts of last resort in their expertise, while the constitutional senate judges the constitutionality of the acts and determinations of any branch of government. Its Justices are elected by the Council and approved by the Assembly, both times requiring a two-thirds supermajority. They serve for ten years or until the age of retirement and are only bound by the law and their conscience.
The monarch and Head of State of Tepertopia is the Protector, who mostly has ceremonial and representative power and responsibility, but through the requirement of their assent to legislation before it enters into force theoretically still wields veto power over new legislation. Succession, triggered by either willing abdication, forced abdication by an act of the Assembly, or death of the incumbent, follows the rules of absolute primogeniture. Should the Protector be absent or otherwise incapable of exercising their office, its duties are assumed by the Council collectively.
Constituent States
Tepertopia is a federation, comprising five Constituent States. Each of the states is largely free to determine its own political system, with the federal constitution only mandating basic principles of democracy, the rule of law, and the welfare state. The states themselves consist of a total 31 sub-units, called Districts in all but Pluvy, whose are called Member States due to its own historically federal organization. At the lowest organizational level are the 289 Municipalities of Tepertopia.
| Constituent State | Capital | Area (km²) | Population | Districts | Municipalities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grimmen | Happelstein | 1,132.9 | 138,457 | 3 | 22 |
| Lotce | Lotce | 780.0 | 143,323 | 3 | 17 |
| Pluvy | Adaca | 4,639.8 | 517,041 | 11 | 106 |
| Valetria | Merpor | 4,382.7 | 513,515 | 9 | 104 |
| Vickel | Wesford | 1,789.6 | 239,075 | 5 | 40 |
Law
Tepertopia has a civil law system.
The highest judicial authority is the High Court of Tepertopia, which is divided into several specialized senates for different areas of law. The constitutional senate as a special case wields powers of judicial review over all behaviour of any branch of government, including the ability to strike down laws that contradict the Articles of Union, but also to review judgements of courts and even other High Court senates strictly in consideration of their direct compatibility with the Articles without regard to other law. The other senates ‒ administrative, civil, criminal, fiscal, and social ‒ act as appellate courts of last resort in matters of law, determining whether the courts of lower instance have correctly applied the law to the facts found in the case at hand.
Political Parties
Federal politics have in recent memory mostly been shaped by three political parties, the People's Welfare Party (PWP), The Moderate (M), and the Merchants Guild (GUILD), representing the centre-left, centre, and centre-right respectively. Nonetheless, further parties have attained representation in the Assembly and, partly, the Council: The spiritualist Canon (C), environmentalist The Future is Ours! (FiO), and right-wing populist The Right Way (TRW) have likewise been able to show a consistent presence in federal politics.
Tepertopia's multi-party proportional system almost guarantees that no single party wins more than half the seats in both Assembly and Council, necessitating inter-party dialogue and compromise. While functioning well through the decades, elections in the 2000s have seen more and more parties enter the Assembly due to no existing electoral threshold, leading to degrees of splintering that render it incapable of reaching decisions at times; consequently, calls for electoral reform ultimately resulted in the development and adoption of the Evaluative Satisfaction System, which has successfully eliminated the most minor parties from the Assembly at the expense of a strictly proportional seat share of each party.