The People's Republic of Shrute Empire is a huge, orderly nation, notable for its triple-decker prams, parental licensing program, and suspicion of poets. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless population of 567 million Peasants are ruled without fear or favor by a psychotic dictator, who outlaws just about everything and refers to the populace as "my little playthings."

The enormous, corrupt, moralistic, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Shrute City. The average income tax rate is 77.1%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but inefficient Shrute Empirean economy, worth 27.8 trillion Shrute Bucks a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is a large, well-organized, quite specialized black market in Uranium Mining, Arms Manufacturing, Basket Weaving, and Trout Farming. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is 48,986 Shrute Bucks, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.0 times as much as the poorest.

Ritual mummification is making a comeback, no personal detail is too tiny for the suede-denim census police, beat cops aren't named for the territory they patrol, and foreign nationals are widely distrusted. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Shrute Empire's national animal is the Shrute Stoat, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Shrute Empire is ranked 35,301^st in the world and 24^th in The Bar on the corner of every region for Largest Black Market, with 5.55 trillion Standard Monetary Units.