The Grand Duchy of Ratling is a very large, cultured nation, remarkable for its daily referendums, punitive income tax rates, and devotion to social welfare. The compassionate, democratic population of 160 million Ratlings love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.

The enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Education, and Welfare. The average income tax rate is 74.4%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but inefficient Ratlingian economy, worth 7.45 trillion legumes a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is quite specialized, is mostly made up of the Trout Farming industry, with significant contributions from Basket Weaving, Information Technology, and Woodchip Exports. Average income is 46,576 legumes, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Passionate nomination battles are often as intense as general elections, streakers swamp all public events in order to bare it all, families are left homeless as entire suburbs are bulldozed on the whim of tribal chiefs, and crossword puzzles have been co-opted as a symbol of racial discrimination. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Ratling's national animal is the vulpes vulpes, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Ratling is ranked 67,914^th in the world and 792^nd in The Communist Bloc for Most Advanced Public Education, scoring 3,213.76 on the Edu-tellignce® Test Score.