Location: ICN

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Democratic Monarchy of Itasio is a massive, genial nation, ruled by Silvano Baresi with an iron fist, and remarkable for its suspicion of poets. Its compassionate, cynical population of 4.921 billion are ruled by a mostly-benevolent dictator, who grants the populace the freedom to live their own lives but watches carefully for anyone to slip up.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, corrupt government stops and the rest of society begins, but it is mainly concerned with Law & Order, although Defence and Social Welfare are on the agenda. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Perezzià. The average income tax rate is 51%, and even higher for the wealthy. The private sector is almost wholly made up of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, although the government is looking at stamping this out.

The government has cut taxes in the face of widespread tax evasion, the government is attempting to impose a new national language on the public, roads are often attended by round-the-clock construction crews, and the nation's infamous boot camp is more brutal than most battlefields. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Itasio's national animal is the Black-necked Grebe, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, its national religion is Roman Catholic, and its currency is the Itasian Lira.

Itasio is ranked 5th in ICN and 99,499th in the world for Largest Insurance Industry, scoring -8 on the Risk Expulsion Effectiveness Rating.

Preview

NationStates by Max Barry, author of and