Ceribia

Introduction goes here

Administrative Divisions

Ceribia is a federation composed of 16 regions. Each region acts as a sub-national unitary parliamentary regime. The Ceribian regions are the direct descendants of the previous ducal states, the main subdivisions of the now defunct Kingdom of Ceribia. After the Revolution, the then ducal states signed a bilateral pact that created an asymmetrical federation, that while rationalised, was preserved a constitution. The regions enjoy a broad range of exclusive powers, for instance, education, health, transport, law enforcement and all indirect taxation.

The structure of the regions mimics to a large extent that of the federal government, with a parliament -albeit unicameral- and a council of ministers and its own laws laid down by the regional constitutions.

The regions's own internal organization is determined by their own laws, all the regions are divided into provinces, with limited powers that usually are linked to some level of coordination of municipal policies.

The head of the government in each region is the Chief Minister Minister (მთავარი მინისტრის). The federal government is represented in each region by a Commissioner (კომისარი) , appointed by the President (პრეზიდენტი) on the advice from the Prime Minister for 5 year terms.

Governance

Political System

Irine Usupashvili is the current Prime Minister of Ceribia.

Ceribia is a parliamentary constitutional federation of regions pooling their individual sovereignty for the common security and broader representation of the interests of the different constituents. The Ceribian political system is the result of a political developments based on class- and religion-based differences between different communities.

As in other parliamentary systems, there is a clear division between the post of head of state and that of the head of government as the head of state is the President of the Federation (ფედერაციის პრეზიდენტი), who serves as a figurehead, is elected every ten years and has very limited duties meanwhile the head of government is the Prime Minister (საქართველოს პრემიერ-მინისტრი) who is elected by and depends on the confidence of lower chamber of the Assembly of the Federation.

Executive

The Council of Ministers (მინისტრთა საბჭოს) is the main body of the executive branch of government. The Council is a entity formed by fifteen members, fourteen ministers and the Prime Minister. The composition of the Council depends on the parliamentary coalition or party with the largest number of seats in the Chamber of Deputies.

The Council is organized according to the inter pares where all ministers are equal and all decisions are taken by a vote. The Prime Minister is the head of government of Ceribia, although he/she lacks the capacity to single-handedly appoint or reshuffle the cabinet, to dismiss ministers or to ask for the dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies, instead being bind by tradition to consult the President and party leaders beforehand. The main task for the Prime Minister is that of a policy coordination and supervision as well as representation of the Council as whole.

Legislature

Assembly of the Federation, holds both houses of the legislature of the Ceribian Federation.

The legislative branch of government is formed by the bicameral Assembly of the Federation, composed of a lower house, the larger Chamber of Deputies (დეპუტატთა პალატის) and an upper house, the smaller Senate (სენატის).

The Chamber of Deputies is the lower of the two chambers of the Assembly and is composed by a total of 245 seats including the President of the Chamber, the Chamber's speaker. The Chamber of Deputies is the only body with the powers to declare war, ratify peace treaties, invest, dismiss or review the actions of the Council of Ministers and its members, pass legislation regarding any national issues and controls the annual budget as it is considered the depository of national sovereignty within the constitutional framework.

The Senate is composed of 100 seats including its Speaker. The Senate is formed by territorial representatives, who represent the interests of the different regions. The senators are elected by the regions' legislatures on the basis of their own composition. The upper chamber is the depository of the regions' sovereignty and has equal powers to the lower chamber whenever a law or a treaty affects the attributions and the powers of the either the federal or the regional level, be it increasing or decreasing them, as well as reforming the Constitution.

Judicial System

The Ceribian judiciary is based on the civil law system. As a result, the role of drafting legislation only belongs to the legislatures, whether federal or at a regional-level. The judiciary system is therefore only responsible for administering and occasionally interpreting legislation on the basis of parliamentary or executive legislation, with the exception of the Constitutional Court, which can review both parliamentary legislation and executive decrees.

The judiciary system is divided between three different subsystems, the civil and criminal court system in which the Civil Tribunal is the court of last resort of the subsystem. The second system is formed by the courts dealing with administrative law. Each of these systems have courts at federal, regional and municipal-level.

Lastly, the Constitutional Court is the sole constitutional court and manages disputes between different internal jurisdictions and reviews the constitutionality of parliamentary legislation whether federal or not. The Constitutional Court is formed by 15 members, of which a third is named by the President, another third by the Chamber of Deputies and another third is elected by the regional assemblies.

Military

Ceribian soldiers during a practice exercise.

The Ceribian Armed Forces (შეიარაღებული ძალების) are the military of the Federation tasked with the defence of the Federation, its citizens and its interests. The Armed Forces are composed of two branches: The Ceribian Army, and the Air Corps. The commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces is the President of the Federation, although real overseeing authority is divided between the Ministry of Defence.

The Ceribian Armed Forces have a total size of 275,000 men and women. The grand majority are soldiers in the Ceribian Army. The Ceribian Armed Forces are an all-volunteer force since 1540, although in light of the recent destabilising events in Brigidna, voices have been raised defending the re-enactment of conscription.

The Army (ჯარი) is the largest and most funded of the two branches of the Armed Forces with a total military personnel of 162,500 personnel. Of these, only about 55% portion are in an active state, the rest, are in the reserve, and can be mobilised relatively easily in case of an attack.

The Air Corps (საჰაერო კორპუსი) is the second largest of the two branches of the Armed Forces. The Air Corps totals 112,500 personnel and is composed of 500 aircraft. The Air Corps, which emerged from the Army is still heavily cooperates with the former, as its strategy has, shifted from offensives, to defend against and potential invasion, by providing a large number of fighters in tank-hunting roles while allowing Ceribia to maintain air superiority.

Law Enforcement

Criminal and private laws are codified on the national level in the Penal and the Civil Code respectively. The penal system is aimed towards rehabilitation of the criminal and the protection of the general public. Except for petty crimes, which are tried before a single professional judge, and serious political crimes, all charges are tried before mixed tribunals on which lay judges sit side by side with professional judges.

Law enforcement is largely a responsibility of the regions, however federal law enforcement agencies exist, the Federal Police Agency, controlled from the Ministry of Interior and the Council, an autonomous anti-corruption force. Although their duties and jurisdictions vary, the police corps are linked in regards to reciprocal support, recruitment, manpower mobility and common training.

Economy

Ceribia features a mixed economy combining extensive private ownership and initiative with government intervention and regulation. The federal government still controls most of the transportation and electricity networks. In recent decades the government has reduced its control over the national economy through liberalization and privatization in numerous sectors of the economy, as well as the privatization of state-owned enterprises.

Financial services, banking and the insurance sector are an important parts of the economy. Ceribia's main stock exchange is the DumCF Exchange. The majority of financial services in Ceribia have their national head quartered in Etova or in Camon.

Energy

The energy market remains largely state-owned through Ceribia Utility Authority (CUA) which controls the distribution and most of the production of electricity in Ceribia. Since the 1530s, Ceribia has invested in renewable energies in order to reduce its dependence on imported oil and gas, which represent the almost entirety of oil and gas used as a result of a lack of these resources in the state.

As of 1565, about 48% of all electricity produced came from renewable energy sources, the government has initiated the construction of hydroelectric dams on the states major rivers, and has largely subsidized private undertakings of wind farms and solar power plants. As a result, 30% of all electricity is produced from hydroelectric dams. Nevertheless, 35% of all electrical production still comes from fossil fuels.

Agriculture

Ceribia has historically been a large producer of agricultures products. Large swathes of fertile ground, modern technological practices and considerable subsidies have allowed for the agricultural industry to thrive. Citrus fruits, vegetables, cereal grains, olives and wine are the main crops and exports of Ceribia; beef and pork are also important products of the agricultural sector, however they are largely behind production of crops and other vegetables and fruits and make up only about 35% of annual agricultural production.

As a result, the agricultural economy features an unusually large agricultural sector in both terms of labour employment and share of the GDP. Ceribian agriculture employs 5.8% of the national workforce and makes up 5.2% of the national GDP.

Transport

Transport by road is very important within the Ceribian state. Every family owns one or more auto mobiles, and large amounts of goods are transported by a large network of highways, which have no speed limit. In total, Ceribia has thousand of kms of roadways, including hundreds of km of highways.

Even while the auto mobile is the most popular form of transport, public transport in Cerbia is well-organised, and the high-speed trains of are direct competitors to the cars that are allowed to travel on derestricted highways. With speeds of 300 km/h upwards, the HST’s are frequently used by businessmen that want to keep their hands off the wheel and do some work for their business while travelling. There are thousand of kms of railways, using standard-gauge rails, most of which is electrified.

A domestic network of airports is connected by the national airline, but also by a scant few domestic budget airlines. The Federation has 230 airports, along with xxx designated heliports. By far the most important airport internationally is Etova-Cormei International Airport, receiving a majority of international flights, as well as an important amount of regional and national flights.

Demographics

With an estimated population of 34,573,958, Ceribia is the 43rd most populated country in Siora. Ceribia is particularly rural compared to other developed countries, as only about 55% of the total population lives in purely urban areas. The majority of the population lives in two main areas: the Eure valley, and Ugen coastal plains

Population trends have shown a decrease in population in the rural, mountainous areas as a result of the internal emigration towards more prosperous areas, such as the southern regions.

Ceribia is a diverse country as a result of historical evolution and is home to several religious denominations as well as very linguistically diverse as a result of persistent feudal structures, geographical isolation of certain regions.

Language

Ceribia is a multilingual society where several official and non-official languages are spoken. At the federal level, Ceribian is the only official language, and it is the right and duty of every citizen to know the language. However, with the exception of thirteen regions where Ceribian is the sole official language, all other regions have their own official languages. As a result, a large number of government services are provided in the regional languages, including education and public media. The regionally official languages are Assarian, Mituan, and Donite.

The majority of Ceribians (around 85%) are bilingual in both Ceribian and their regional language. Ceribian is also the most spoken first language of Ceribia, although only 65.5% of all Ceribians speak Ceribian as a first language. Assarian is spoken by about 4 million Ceribians and is the second most spoken language. Mituan and Donite are also widely spoken, in the north-west of the country, with around 4% and 7% of the population speaking it as a first language respectively.

Religion

Ceribia is constitutionally a secular state at the federal level, however it is not uncommon for the different regions to fund the different predominant religious denominations in their boundaries, particularly in predominantly Messanic regions. This is the result of the identification of the Messanic faith, mainly the Ostrid Chruch with the regional identity.

Messanism is the largest religion in Ceribia, with around 73.9% of the population as adherents to the faith. Relative to the whole of the population, about 60.3% are Ostrid followed by a 13.3% that are Avalsyanist. Other, smaller Avalsyanist churches exist, however, none of these smaller churches reach a national affiliation of over 1%.

Church attendance is very low, with about 18% in urban centres although higher in rural areas, at about 30-40%. Avalsyanist make up the majority of the population in 5 regions and a minority in 2 and are primarily located in western and northern Ceribia while Ostrids make up the majority in 11 regions and a minority in 2 and are mainly located in south-central and eastern Ceribia.

Malkalism is the second largest religion in Ceribia, with about 17.2% of the population adhering to the faith. A small minority of the population are also follow Akhadism, making up roughly 2.2% of the population.

Ceribians with no stated religious adherence make up 6.97% of the population and are concentrated in major metropolitan areas, particularly in Etova and Camon, where they make up a slight majority of the population. Church membership has decreased in recent decades, particularly among Avalsyanist and persons who self-identify with the left-wing of the political spectrum.

Education

Education is compulsory from 5 to 18 years of age for Ceribians. Primary and secondary education is managed by the regions while the federal government funds and supports both the universities (უნივერსიტეტები) and the professional universities (პროფესიული უნივერსიტეტებშიs). The education system is organized around two different systems. The first is composed by public schools, which manage the education of about 40% of all pupils and the second, is composed of subsidized, privately-operated schools, usually managed by the different religious denominations, particularly the Ostrid Church.

All children attend primary school (დაწყებითი სკოლების) from ages 5 to 12 together. Based on an aptitude test, the 6th grade teacher's recommendation and the opinion of the pupil's parents or caretakers, a choice is made for one of the four main streams of secondary education.

These four streams are:

• The GSE, a very broad, general education, preparing for higher education lasting for six years.

• The TSE which although offering also a general education, it focuses on either more technical matters (TT) or more practical ones (QT) while providing the possibility of going directly to the job market, a professional university or a regular university.

• The ASE which links general and broad secondary education development with active art practice, ranging from performance arts to display arts.

• The PSE offering a practical and job-oriented education, which in case of lengthening the studies for one or two years allows a student to enter a professional university.

Admission to universities is open and free to anyone with either a GSE or a TSE diploma except for degrees in medicine, engineering and management, which require passing specific aptitude tests right after the attainment of the secondary education diploma.

Health

The healthcare system is financed through social security contributions and taxation. Health insurance is compulsory. Health care is delivered by a mostly private system of independent medical practitioners and hospitals. Most of the time each provided service is directly paid by the patient and reimbursed later on by health insurance companies. The supervision of the healthcare system is carried out by the regions, although the federal governments sets the reimbursement rates, which range from 50 to 95% depending on a series of factors.

Hospitals are usually managed by private non-profit institutions, such as religious institutions, universities or mutuals. Religious hospitals have traditionally had a reputation for better intensive care and are regarded as more expensive.

Although the government regulates the prices of the basic insurance packages and sets the provisions to be included in them, other medical practices, such as dentistry and plastic surgery are not covered by the minimal coverage, and their prices are determined by the private hospitals.