History

The Republic of Avoidants was founded in 2007 by a few introverted but intelligent friends who wanted to establish a utopia for other introverts like themselves. The republic was founded upon the principle that true merit, compassion and cooperation, and diligence are qualities that should be valued and encouraged over traits traditionally considered necessary for success, such as gregariousness, self-promotion, and outspokenness. From its small and humble beginnings, the republic has since become a magnet for introverts and quiet intellectuals from all over the world, seeking a place for meeting like-minded individuals, or perhaps just a refuge from the loud and obnoxious people typically dominating popular culture in other areas. The Republic of Avoidants has flourished into a thriving nation of over half a billion citizens who have come to develop a rich culture and a strong sense of national identity.

General ideals

• Every citizen is entitled to having his/her basic human needs met, regardless of financial status.

• Basic healthcare
• Basic housing/shelter
• Adequate food
• Basic education

• Pursuit of academia and furthering the knowledge base of humanity.
• Merit, skill, and diligence will determine success.

• One's social and financial status will be largely determined by these traits, making this society a meritocracy.

• Social equality

• This doesn't mean communism. Despite the social inequality inherent in a meritocracy, the base quality of life at poverty level is still very high, and the richest are taxed the most heavily. Basically, if you're smart and work hard, you'll do better than others and be richer and enjoy the finer things in life, but only within reason. If you get ridiculously rich, you'll get taxed down to being just plain rich in order to fund social services and help fulfill the basic needs of the poor.
• individuals may of course look out for their own well-being first, but should never harm the community for motives of greed for personal gain.
• individuals are not required to be charitable, but should have enough of a sense of community to feel a sense of responsibility for the well-being of others in society.

• Commitment to conserving and respecting the environment
• Civil rights & Political freedoms

• Basically, you can live your life any way you want to without interference from the government, as long as your lifestyle isn't harming anyone else.
• Everyone is treated as equal citizens with equal rights.
• Freedom of the press, freedom to criticize the government, freedom to x y & z. You can say or print whatever you want, but you can't blatantly spread false information or abuse the media to mislead the people.

• Violence sucks

• Avoidants has a decent military and police force in order to defend the nation and enforce the law.
• Avoidants has a very strict gun-control policy, prohibiting citizens from owning/carrying firearms except on very rare occasions. This is based upon the simple principle that guns kill people...which is a serious bad thing...and are rarely ever truly needed in society. As for the self defense argument for having ownership of guns, if the aggressor doesn't have a gun either, you're both better off, and hopefully this will be the case if the government truly has tight control over firearms.

• Pro-immigration, anti-xenophobia

• Citizens are encouraged to be multi-lingual and knowledgeable about international affairs and cultures other than their own.
• The Republic of Avoidants welcomes immigrants of all nationalities, but the process is regulated to ensure national security. Avoidants grants asylum to refugees and is happy to help those fleeing turmoil from other countries. However, it does give preference to skilled workers and intellectuals, and does not allow immigrant hopefuls with convictions of serious crimes into their borders.

Government

The government of the Republic of Avoidants consists of the following five branches:

• Executive
• Legislative
• Judicial
• Research
• Services

Executive

The executive branch is headed by the president, who is elected through a popular vote. The current president is President Rea. The executive branch consists of the following departments responsible for their respective duties:

• Treasury
• Defense
• State/Foreign Affairs
• Commerce
• Environment
• Justice

Legislative

The legislative branch is responsible for law-making. It consists of a body of 300 representatives directly elected by the citizens of their district.

Judicial

The judicial branch consists of the court systems of Avoidants.

Services

The Republic of Avoidants has a branch of government specifically devoted to services in addition to the three traditional branches of government due to the extent of social services provided by the government.

The services branch of government consists of the following departments:

• Healthcare
• Education
• Housing
• Infrastructure - roads, public transportation
• Welfare
• Veteran's Affairs
• Disaster preparedness and relief

Each department is responsible for the following:

• requesting relevant data collection from research branch of government.
• organizing and planning services given
• requesting funds from executive branch
• implementing services
• suggesting relevant legislature to the legislative branch of government.

Research

The research branch of government is responsible for collecting comprehensive and accurate information, whether for the purposes of academia or for the purposes of making governmental decisions. The theory behind this branch of government is that centralizing all the data collection resources into one place will make data collection quicker and more efficient. Also, this centralization of information makes sharing of information and information access by governmental departments and citizens alike much easier. All of the information collected by the research department is publicly accessible unless otherwise specified. Other branches of government may conduct research as well, but must report all findings to the research branch to be archived.

The research branch is divided into the following departments:

• Research grant allocations - determines federal funding to research done by citizens and research institutions
• Census
• Services data collection - collects data about quality of life parameters of target population and efficacy of service implementation for the services branch.
• Government - collects data about government expenditures and basic information about the government to help keep it efficient and in check.
• Security - information about the strength of the military and national defense, in addition to foreign threats. This data is private so that other nation's can't exploit it to attack.
• Economy
• Environment
• Archives - this department makes sure all research done is properly organized and archived in an easily accessible way.

NS Description

The description for the Republic of Avoidants as of September 4, 2007 is as follows:

The Republic of Avoidants is a huge, socially progressive nation, renowned for its devotion to social welfare. Its compassionate population of 578 million are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, socially-minded government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Education, Healthcare, and the Environment. The average income tax rate is 100%. A nonexistent private sector is dominated by the Book Publishing industry.

Schools have extensive counseling programs for troubled students, protests are legal but strictly supervised, all forms of advertising are banned, and Avoidants is notorious for its citizens' infidelity. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Avoidants's national animal is the turtle, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the dollar.

Avoidants is ranked 1st in the region and 2,787th in the world for Nicest Citizens.