The Kingdom of Bowcombe is a gargantuan, socially progressive nation, ruled by King Baldred with an even hand, and remarkable for its avant-garde cinema, unlimited-speed roads, and devotion to social welfare. The compassionate population of 14.847 billion Bowcombeans have some civil rights, but not too many, enjoy the freedom to spend their money however they like, to a point, and take part in free and open elections, although not too often.

The enormous government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Welfare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Lukely. The average income tax rate is 75.8%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The thriving Bowcombean economy, worth a remarkable 1,160 trillion vects a year, is quite specialized and led by the Book Publishing industry, with major contributions from Information Technology, Tourism, and Basket Weaving. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 78,197 vects, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Psychiatrists bizarrely accompany King Baldred to meetings with foreign heads of state, the nation's taxpayers pay for foreign governments' extravagances, college athletes are arrested for selling lemonade, and sniffer dogs are trained to follow clouds of fruity-smelling vapor. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Bowcombe's national animal is the cobra, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is pagan.

Bowcombe is ranked 278,506^th in the world and 11^th in Vectis for Most Armed, with 0.15 weapons per person.