Arsytia

Arsytia, officially the Arsytian Federative Socialist Workers' Republic (AFSWR), is a country in Serica, on the continent of Serratar. Established in 1891 as the Arsytian Commune after the January Revolution, which overthrew the Arsytian Empire, Arsytia is the 2nd largest country in the world in terms of land area, extending from its southern border with Phoenicia to well above the Arctic Circle. Arsytia has a population of 170,439,760, with several major ethnic groups, and is the second-most populous country on Serratar. It shares borders with Fengjiang, Melkia, and Svatodor. Arsytia's capital and largest city is Kylma.

Although explicitly defined in its Constitution as a socialist state, Arsytia guarantees the rights of opposition and non-socialist parties, with elections carried out according to its principles of. However, Arsytia is frequently characterized as having a, as the ruling Arsytian Workers' Party has never lost a majority in the Workers' General Council since the establishment of the AFSWR. Arsytia is an, with its majority-minority People's Republics exercising greater local autonomy and self-governance than its considerably larger amount of Arsytian-majority communes.

With immense mineral and energy reserves, Arsytia's economy is organized on lines and is the world's fifth-largest. Industries defined as "strategic" are state-owned and centrally-planned. Both planning and management are assisted by Arsytia's AJÄRLASTI information network and decision support system. Smaller enterprises and non-strategic industries are independently owned and operated by workers' collectives. Although the state has historically prioritized heavy industry and resource extraction as its economic focuses, Arsytia has consistently invested in scientific research and has recently begun expansion of its technological industry.

A member of the Tavaric Treaty Organization, Arsytia is considered a major regional power, and the second-strongest state in the TTO. A participant in the Great Serrataran War, where it accounted for the majority of allied losses, Phoenicia's invasion of Arsytia in 1944 resulted in the opening of the Serican theater of war. Since the Great Serrataran War, Arsytia has consistently pursued a policy of military preparedness, with universal military service and a continual buildup of primarily conventional, but also nuclear forces.

Workers' Councils and Arsytian Democracy
The most enduring structural evidence of Arsytia's revolutionary origins, the workers' councils (työväenneuvosto) are the basis of governance in Arsytia. The basic structure of Arsytia's system of councils is a pyramid, with lower councils sending delegates to higher councils—every higher council being a sort of "council of councils". In practice, this works as follows: factory and agricultural collective councils are elected directly from the working masses, which send representatives to town councils, which send representatives to district councils, which send representatives to regional councils, which send representatives to commune councils, which, finally, send delegates to the Workers' General Council for five-year terms. Factory and agricultural collective councils may have 3 to 50 members, while town councils have a maximum of 1,000 members.

General elections for councils are held at the end of each year. At the end of the Workers' General Council's five-year term, their elections are held at the same time. Elections are held via public forum, with those in attendance voting for a given candidate via show of hands—this is done to encourage public debate on the qualifications of a given candidate. Each council, along with electing representatives to a higher council, prepares a list of needs and requests to be passed upwards. Lists are analyzed, discussed, compiled, then passed upwards—the end result, at the level of the Workers' General Council, are funding requests from the communes. Funds are allotted from the state budget, pass downwards through the network of councils, and are ultimately allocated to their relevant purpose by the lowest councils.

As instruments of executive power, councils form committees in parallel with various arms of the state, aided and advised by public employees—doctors serve on healthcare committees, teachers serve on education committees, and so on—cooperating with the state on a local level to ensure needs are met. Most council representatives are involved in a committee of some sort. At any given time, it is estimated that over a million Arsytians are involved in councils at all levels. Additionally, when elected from the ranks of a state-owned enterprise, factory councils are expected to oversee execution of the central plan and negotiate with factory management in the creation of plans of action towards that end.

If representatives are felt to have failed—by not properly representing the wishes of their constituents, or for a myriad of other reasons—they may be recalled by a majority vote of the council below them, or, in the face of factory/agricultural collective councils, by their direct constituents.

Arsytian Workers' Party
The Arsytian Workers' Party (Arsyten Työväenpuolue) is the founding and ruling party of the AFSWR. Founded as the Arsytian Workers' and Peasants' Party in 1872, it existed largely as an underground organization during the Arsytian Empire. During the late 1880s, the Party, buoyed by covert support from Melkia in the form of money and weaponry, began open agitation as the apparatus of the imperial state began to falter in the face of a mounting debt crisis and increasing unrest, especially among the peasantry, which the party quickly harnessed and drove towards its revolutionary goals. After the revolution and the establishment of the Arsytian Commune, the party dropped the "Peasants'" from its name, to reflect the idea that under the new socialist state, all workers would be equal.

Since the January Revolution in 1891, the Arsytian Workers' Party has never lost a major election. Much of its enduring success has to do with its status as the force behind the January Revolution in addition to its presiding over unprecedented growth in prosperity and power for Arsytia. However, the nature of Arsytia's system works to dilute the influence of its fractious opposition. The low level at which its workers' begin, along with the size of their membership and the sheer amount of councils, mean that it is relatively rare for opposition representatives to make it to the Workers' General Council and influence national politics.

The strongest opposition to the Workers' Party comes from a variety of ethnic minority parties that hold a significant (but still non-majority) seats in the councils of its People's Republics—however, these parties, due to various rivalries and disagreements, have never been able to form a stable coalition that could challenge the majority held by the Workers' Party, even when the Party has been wracked with internal disagreements.

Workers' General Council
The Workers' General Council (Työväen Pääneuvosto) is Arsytia's supreme organ of state power and its most powerful legislative body. It holds great authority, including the ability to amend the Arsytian Constitution, and elects the Chairman, all Commissars, and the Supreme Court. Elected every five years by the commune councils, it has two plenary sessions every year, though it may be summoned for extraordinary sessions at the behest of the Central Executive Committee. It exercises ultimate oversight over all arms of the state through reports from the Central Executive Committee, and may vote to recall all authorities, including the Chairman, at will.

Central Executive Committee
The Central Executive Committee (Toimeenpaneva Keskuskomitea) is the most senior executive and decision-making body of the Arsytian state. Led by the Chairman of the Workers' General Council, the Committee can be considered a collective head of state. Its membership consists of the Chairman and the Commissars of each of Arsytia's Offices, of which there are fourteen, for a total membership of fifteen.

The Committee's membership is nominated by the Chairman at the first plenary session of a newly-elected Workers' General Council, then elected by vote of the Council. The Committee is tasked with: In all of its activities, the Committee is accountable to the Workers' General Council, and is required to regularly report to the Council on its activities. With a supermajority vote, the Council may vote to recall one or all members of the Committee, including the Chairman.
 * Management of the Arsytian economy
 * Formulation and submission of five-year plans and the state budget to the Workers' General Council
 * Defending the Arsytian people, their state, and the revolution against foreign powers
 * Ensuring internal security
 * General policies regarding the Workers' Army
 * General policies regarding trade, foreign relations, and Arsytia's participation in international organizations
 * Creating and overseeing state committees for coordinating activities of multiple offices and organs of the state towards a relevant purpose

Although the Committee may not pass permanently-binding laws, as such power rests solely in the hands of the Workers' General Council, it may pass decrees with the force of law when the Council is not in session. Such decrees are subject to immediate review upon the next scheduled session of the Council, or upon the calling of a special session of the Council by the Committee. If, upon review, the decree is approved by the Council, it is passed into law. If not, it is considered revoked.

Administrative Divisions
Article 60 of the Arsytian Constitution States: "The Arsytian Federative Socialist Workers' Republic is a socialist, multi-national, federal state. It is formed in accordance with socialist principles of national self-determination and through the voluntary unification of the peoples of Arsytia in the spirit of equality and unity between proletarians of all nations." A product much compromise between various revolutionary factions in the wake of the deposition of the Provisional Revolutionary Council, Arsytia is an. In addition to its 86 Arsytian-majority communes, Arsytia also has 5 majority-minority people's republics: the Khalkhan, Taivali, Saarelainen, Andronovonian, and Maarulali People's Republics.

Communes
The most common top-level administrative unit of Arsytia, there are 86 communes. They vary quite widely in size—in both population and geographic extent—from the Kylma Commune, which has encompasses Arsytia's 10 million-strong capital, to the sparsely-populated but enormous Suosalmi Commune in northern Arsytia, with only 100,000 people. The communes were drawn up at the First Plenary Session of the Workers' General Council, and can be redrawn only by another act of the Workers' General Council. Most commonly, this has been to adjust the borders of a growing city to match its expanded size.

Communes are governed by Commune Councils, which are elected from the Regional Councils. In turn, the Commune Councils elect representatives to the Workers' General Council. Commune Councils function as both a representative and executive body, passing the wishes of their constituents upwards and, in turn, doling out state funds and ensuring that directives passed down from the Workers' General Council are followed.

Economy
With the 5th-largest GDP in world, Arsytia has a operated on  lines. The Arsytian economy has long been characterized by macroeconomic stability, negligible unemployment, and high job security. Though there is a mixture of state-owned and collectively-owned industries, Arsytia's main industries—petroleum and natural gas, heavy industries, mining, chemicals, electronics, aerospace, and defense—are all state-owned and account for the majority of Arsytia's GDP.

The rapid industrialization campaigns of the 1920s and 1930s spurred a period of rapid development and economic growth in Arsytia. During the aftermath of the Sneedhavn crash, Arsytia surpassed its more developed Hatarian neighbors in economic growth, and continued to grow at a rapid pace until the Great Serrataran War. The Fengese invasion of Arsytia devastated much of its industrial base and killed off millions of young and productive workers. Arsytia's postwar economic recovery was considerably protracted, stunted by devastated infrastructure, heavy war debts, and the need to maintain the Workers' Army at a large size—the end result being that Arsytia never experienced the "economic miracles" that swept Hatar. Since 1947, Arsytia has consistently lagged behind its Hatarian counterparts and remains the poorest country in the Tavaric Treaty Organization by GDP per capita.