The State of Cowperthwaite Esplanade is a gargantuan, safe nation, ruled by the Governor with a fair hand, and remarkable for its irreverence towards religion, punitive income tax rates, and stringent health and safety legislation. The democratic population of 25.37 billion Cowperthwaite Esplanadeans 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, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Welfare, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Capital Heights. The average income tax rate is 50.7%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The large but sluggish Cowperthwaite Esplanadean economy, worth 375 trillion betales a year, is highly specialized and led by the Cheese Exports industry, with significant contributions from Uranium Mining, Automobile Manufacturing, and Pizza Delivery. Black market activity is frequent. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 14,814 betales, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The Governor has just been declared ruler of Cowperthwaite Esplanade in an international press conference, politicians preface their speeches with a declaration that any resemblance to speeches given by individuals living or dead is purely coincidental, 13-year-old internet trolls are treated as a threat on par with terrorists, and more than one company makes the board game Monopoly. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Cowperthwaite Esplanade's national animal is the deer, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Cowperthwaite Esplanade is ranked 151,733^rd in the world and 2^nd in Dakar for Lowest Crime Rates, with 60.89 law-abiding acts per hour.