The Federal Republic of Great Schwanien is a huge, safe nation, renowned for its ubiquitous missile silos, smutty television, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic population of 537 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 large, 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 68.3%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The thriving Great Schwanish economy, worth 44.0 trillion Schwani Dollars a year, is fairly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Arms Manufacturing, Book Publishing, and Beef-Based Agriculture. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 82,014 Schwani Dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The question "please would you...?" is usually laden with passive aggression, the military struggles with recruitment, the nation's first space rocket -- sponsored by Eckie-Ecola and shaped like an enormous soda bottle -- is being developed, and when their backs are against the walls Great Schwanier look out for gay men. 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 95,954^th in the world and 458^th in Europe for Largest Automobile Manufacturing Sector, scoring 2,519.86 on the Henry Ford Productivity Index.