The Brazen Panoply of Steam and Clockwork is a gargantuan, socially progressive nation, ruled by Archsophist Archimedes Babbage with a fair hand, and notable for its rum-swilling pirates, barren, inhospitable landscape, and daily referendums. The hard-nosed, hard-working, democratic, cheerful population of 13.97 billion Pneumata are effectively ruled by a group of massive corporations, who run for political office and provide their well-off citizens with world-class goods and services. Their poorer citizens, however, are mostly starving to death while being urged to go out and get real jobs. The populace has reasonably extensive civil rights, although these are mostly aimed at allowing them to buy whatever they like.

The relatively small, corrupt, pro-business, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Industry, Education, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Gear and Sprocket. The average income tax rate is 99.7%.

The frighteningly efficient Pneumatic economy, worth a remarkable 7,362 trillion pneumatiCERTs a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Retail, Book Publishing, and Arms Manufacturing. Average income is a breathtaking 527,028 pneumatiCERTs, but there is a vast disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 4,721,885 per year while the poor average 7,577, a ratio of 623 to 1.

The nation is committed to nuclear rearmament, toy versions of heroin paraphernalia let kids pretend to be their favourite TV characters, running away is an essential part of the elite forces' hand-to-hand training, and an aboriginal talking stick is used for leaders' debates at election time. Crime is totally unknown. Steam and Clockwork's national animal is the Automaton, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, and its national religion is Way of Gas and Vacuum.

Steam and Clockwork is ranked 3,517^th in the world and 3^rd in The Horde for Most Corrupt Governments, with 272.2 kickbacks per hour.