The Federal Republic of Great Schwanien is a huge, efficient nation, remarkable for its daily referendums, irreverence towards religion, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate, democratic population of 602 million Great Schwanier 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, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Nexara. The average income tax rate is 71.0%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The powerhouse Great Schwanish economy, worth 48.3 trillion Schwani Dollars a year, is dominated by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing, Arms Manufacturing, and Beef-Based Agriculture. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 80,192 Schwani Dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Economists claim no news is good news, even secular Great Schwanier are shouting "Blessed are the cheesemakers!", politicians can be condescending (which by the way means "showing an attitude of patronising superiority"), and the amount welfare recipients spend on fertilizer has exploded. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Great Schwanien's national animal is the swan, which is also the nation's favorite main course.

Great Schwanien is ranked 30,690^th in the world and 419^th in Europe for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 216.36 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.