The Retired Delegate of Alsted is a gargantuan, cultured nation, ruled by a federal presidency with a fair hand, and remarkable for its daily referendums, irreverence towards religion, and restrictive gun laws. The hard-nosed, democratic population of 29.848 billion Alstedians enjoy a sensible mix of personal and economic freedoms, while the political process is open and the people's right to vote held sacrosanct.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked morass — juggles the competing demands of Education, Healthcare, and Environment. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of San Junipero. The average income tax rate is 80.8%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The strong Alstedian economy, worth a remarkable 1,727 trillion Alstedian Dollars a year, is extremely specialized and solely comprised of the Book Publishing industry. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 57,865 Alstedian Dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

New safety regulations require all cars manufactured in Alsted to be bombproof, employers may fire workers without giving any reason, planespotters are emigrating in droves, and corporate lobbying has been outlawed. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Alsted's national animal is the Juniperon Otter, which frolics freely in the nation's sparkling oceans.

Alsted is ranked 211,096^th in the world and 964^th in Europe for Most Armed, with 0.19 weapons per person.