Overview

Powers
- Legislative branch
- Auditory branch
- Judicial branch
- Executive branch

Legislative Branch
This branch is formed by the 72 ministries and their officials. This branch proposes, writes, and evaluates the law, and passes it on to the auditory branch. This system is entirely meritocratic: the best people are asked to become a high-ranking official within this system. Of course, there are already numerous checks in place to make sure that conflicts of interest and biased policies are avoided.

Auditory Branch
In order to control the legislative branch, making sure that each official stays within line, and does not abuse their power, there is an auditory branch that consists of a democratically elected parliament (144 seats). The parliament has the power to reject/approve laws that are written by the Legislative Branch above; to reject/approve the annual budget; and to add comments and advice to rejected laws and budgets.

Judicial Branch
This branch consists entirely of the judicial system of Ko-oren, including its judges, attorneys, prosecutors, et cetera. This branch interprets and applies the law.

Executive Branch
This branch consists of the police, coast guard, navy, and all those who carry the authority to arrest people and enforce the law.

Parliament
There are 144 seats, which are divided into three:
- 48 seats are reserved for census areas. Each census area controls one seat, and only people registered in that census area can vote for its corresponding seat. These elections are first past the post (with ranked voting), which is not ideal, but it is the only way to give out a seat per region, making sure that every region is represented in the grand scheme of checking the laws made by the meritocratic legislative branch.
- 96 seats are elected nationally, with 48 seats elected every 3 years. That means that once elected, a member of parliament is in office for 6 years. These elections are national, in which everyone over 18 may vote for one single member. When the votes are tallied, the votes are first counted per party. Say that the 'X Party' gets 11% of the votes, that means they get 5 seats (as 11% of 48 is a little over 5). Then, those five seats are handed out to the members of that party which have gotten the highest total individual votes.

There are many independents in parliament. There are also many small parties, and only a handful of parties that control over 5-10 seats at any time. Parties are sometimes created for ideological or budgetary reasons, or for brand awareness.

(Democratic) politics in Ko-oren revolve around different axes than most nations' politics. Instead of a conservative/progressive and a left/right axis, Ko-orenite parliamentarians are often put on a centralist/decentralist axis, and a democratic/meritocratic one, to keep things simple. There are obviously many more ways to rank parties and independents.

Currently, the largest parties are as follows (in no particular order):

PDParti Démocratique (Democratic Party, Democratische Partij)
-Main policies: Pro-democracy. No consistent stance on centralism. Generally pro-economic and civil liberties as well.
---Political stance: Asks for more rights for the parliament, including making the parliament part of the legislature instead of just the auditory branch.
---Economic stance: Supports economic liberties to some extent. In the centre of the planned-liberal economy spectrum. Wants the parliament to write the budget. Encourage more private companies, and job growth.
---Cultural stance: Supports civil liberties to some extent. Calls for free media and politically inspired media, as in most democracies.
PdRParti des Régions (Party for Regions, Partij voor de Regio)
-Main policies: Local autonomy, federal state. Decentralism. Room for local education & language policy. Regionalism.
---Political stance: Local autonomy, federal state. Decentralism.
---Economic stance: national and regional taxes to be separated, as well as national/state/municipal funds to be separated. Competition among regions is alright.
---Cultural stance: Room for local education & language policy. Supports local traditions and heritage.
PIParti International (International Party, Internationale Partij)
-Main policies: International cooperation.
---Political stance: Always seeking international solutions, meritocratic, central state. Favours an international judicial system and World Assembly activity.
---Economic stance: Highly competitive in terms of international markets, slightly liberal. Looks for trade/economic treaties, avoids taxing international profits and international companies (as long as they are transparent about their profits). Fair trade and equal opportunities.
---Cultural stance: Equal opportunities for all, an internationally competitive education policy, and using proven, foreign solutions over local experimentation with policies.
YDTYoshima Independence Party (四島独立党 = Yoshima Dokuritsutou)
-Main policies: An independent Yoshima.
---Political stance: Yoshima should be independent. Local autonomy, federal state. Decentralism.
---Economic stance: Yoshima should be independent. National and regional taxes to be separated, as well as national/state/municipal funds to be separated. Competition among regions is ok.
---Cultural stance: Yoshima should be independent. Room for local education & language policy. Supports local traditions and heritage.
MMidori! (Green!, Groen!)
-Main policies: Green politics. On the left side of the spectrum in economics and culture. Progressive.
---Political stance: Supports the meritocracy (and status quo) more than the democracy. Seeks more action on the international stage. Finds support for green policies on the national and regional levels, but does not call for more (de)centralism.
---Economic stance: Seeks a green, circular economy, which may or may not be highly automated. There must be room for fair, honest, local products as well. Expects a lot of jobs to be created to ensure their wants.
---Cultural stance: Green policies. More civil liberties, as long as it fits with their party name.
NPKNationalist Party of Ko-oren (Nationalistische Ko-orenitische Partij)
-Main policies: Ko-oren's interests go first.
---Political stance: Less international activity.
---Economic stance: Locally produced goods to be subsidised, imported goods to be taxed extra. Calls for more exports as well, more manufacturing and a 'making' economy. Low unemployment.
---Cultural stance: More money for locally produced culture (music, movies, tv, radio, etc). More money for healthcare. Less money to education, particularly in making Ko-orenite universities available to foreigners.
LABLabour Party
-Main policies: Left of the spectrum, politically. 'Classic' labour party.
---Political stance: Centralism, bigger role for the parliament.
---Economic stance: Highly planned economy. Taxation to focus on the rich. Low unemployment, including jobs on the low end in agriculture, manufacturing and the like.
---Cultural stance: Education to focus on skills more. Free education, healthcare.
LIBLiberal Party
-Main policies: Right of the spectrum, politically. Classic liberal/conservative party.
---Political stance: Pro-democracy, smaller government.
---Economic stance: Far more economic liberties, and expects job growth to come from more private enterprises.
---Cultural stance: Let the market decide on the need for some parts of education and media. Healthcare to be kept under control cost-wise.
FFFPFor the Future, for the People
-Main policies: Socialism. Revolutionary policies.
---Political stance: Socialist, democratic, large government, pro-international cooperation.
---Economic stance: Highly planned economy. Low unemployment rates. High taxation for the rich. Universal basic income.
---Cultural stance: Socialist: (somewhat) regulated education policies, media, etc. Equality above all.
MERMeritocratic Party (Meritocratische Partij, Parti Méritocratique)
-Main policies: Pro-meritocracy, pro-centralism, larger government, focus on education.
---Political stance: Pro-meritocracy, pro-centralism, larger government.
---Economic stance: Planned economy, with the tax burden shared equally, the wealthy supplying the bulk. Government activities should also be rewarding economically (even if it's by a tiny amount). Wants to experiment with Universal basic income.
---Cultural stance: Favours free and unaffiliated education and media. Supports independent (political) watchdogs.
V&BVert et Bleu (Green and Blue, Groen en Blauw)
-Main policies: Green politics & liberalism & liberal economics.
---Political stance: In favour of the status quo, sometimes pro-democracy. Pro-centralism. Moderately in favour of international cooperation.
---Economic stance: Supports a liberal, circular, economy. Supports automation, and green policies of course. Is aware of the paradox in that first sentence.
---Cultural stance: Make the government slightly smaller, add whistleblower roles, and de-politicalised education, journalism, etc. Seeks to create jobs in a circular, automated economy.
PLEParti pour Libertés Économiques(Party for Economic Freedom, Partij voor Economische Vrijheid)
-Main policies: Economic freedom for all, civil liberties for all.
---Political stance: Slightly favours a democracy and parliamentary powers. Pro-decentralism. Pro-international activity.
---Economic stance: Between laissez-faire and liberal. Low taxation rates. High purchasing power, less government-directed services. On the fence about Universal basic income.
---Cultural stance: Decrease the government's role. Privatise some services. Pro-legalisation.
CONConservatives
-Main policies: Critical of immigration. Political centralisation. Less international activity.
---Political stance: Pro-meritocracy, pro-centralism, anti-international.
---Economic stance: favours a liberal economy, but can live with a planned economy. Taxation burdens everyone, and the richest should contribute slightly more. Avoids taxing property and inheritance, leaving the richest better off overall.
---Cultural stance: wants native Ko-orenite languages more than others. Conservatism over all, but fairly liberal otherwise.
PIRPirate Party
-Main policies: Progressive, pro-privacy, pro-automation
---Political stance: Pro-meritocracy with huge freedoms for whistleblowers. Favours international cooperation.
---Economic stance: liberal, seeks ways to circumvent opaque elements, including some bank practices.
---Cultural stance: Highly progressive in terms of education policy, environment, and journalism/media. Considers information flow & privacy in everything.

Main policies: the party in one sentence. Political stance: meritocracy/democracy and centralism/decentralism and Ko-oren on the international stage. Economic stance: laissez-faire/liberal/planned/socialist-communist as well as taxation & taxation focus. Cultural: education & science, language, environment, journalism & media, healthcare, legalisation.

Parties are informally divided into voting blocks. There are nine such blocks: Meritocracy, Democracy, Centralism, Regionalism, Pro-international, Nationalist, Planned Economy, Liberal Economy, and Environmental. To take the Meritocratic Party as an example: they are in the voting block for Meritocracy, Centralism, and Planned Economy. Parties that join them in the Meritocracy block, for instance, can oppose them in other blocks.

Political Situation per Subdivision
Most of these terms are rooted in Ko-oren's history, and are explained elsewhere in the factbook in more detail. Here I will give short working definitions, that do not tell the entire story.

As stated above, one third of the national parliament's seats are allocated per census area. Every census area contains about half a million people - but borders are cut off at the subdivision (state, province, prefecture, etc). This section will be concerned with the 48 census area seats. Voting behaviour is different per census area: usually, areas in the same subdivision share a lot of similarities, but even then there are differences whether a census area is predominantly urban/rural, rich/poor, etc.

The list of 12 subdivisions will be ordered by green/blue states, a generalising dichotomy, placing six subdivisions on the green side (historically affiliated with the capital cities and the central Ko-orenite government), and placing six on the blue side (historically unaffiliated, independent, developed separately from the rest of the country, or developed a bad relationship with the capital cities/central Ko-orenite government before joining the country). Generally, green states will favour the central government and meritocracy, while blue states can have a democratic and/or decentralistic voter base.

Agencies
In addition to this, several parts of society are organised by government agencies, some of which are directly tied to a ministry or secretariat. These can be found here.