Ruttland

Free State of Ruttland Ruttish: Nemokama Ruttųijos Valstybė Weranic: Freistaat Ruttland
Constituent Free State
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem: O, brangioji giraitės medis Oh dear rowan tree
■ – Ruttland ■ – Werania
Country	Werania
Status	Free state within a federal monarchy
Annexation into Werania	1850
Devolution	1986
Capital and largest city	Lipliškės
Government
• Type	Devolved parliamentary republic in a federal monarchy
• Body	Seimas
• Minister-Chairman	Raimundas Monkevičius
Population  (2018)
• Total	10,792,847
Demonym	Ruttish
GDP
• Total	$399,140 million
• Per capita	$36,981
Area code	+893
Official languages	Ruttish Weranic

The Free State of Ruttland (Ruttish: Nemokama Ruttųijos Valstybė) is a constituent state within the Lands of the Weranic Crown. It borders Cislania to the east and has an international border with Vredlandia to the west. It has a population of 10,792,847 and its capital is Lipliškės.

The presence of Ruttish people in the area dates back to the 3rd millennium BC. Under the Solarians Ruttish tribes were never conquored rather existing as tribal, pagan societies that were not united under any single authority. Under the Ahnemunde Confederation in the 950's under Emperor Ludwig II Ruttland was invaded by the confederation with the intention to convert it to Sotirianty. Around the Around the 1^st century AD the region was conquered again by the Algirdas dynasty who created the Archduchy of Ruttland, an absolute monarchy within the Ahnemunde Confederation. The Algirdas were able to seize power in the confederation in 1254 under Vilimas I. The Archduchy entered a personal union with the Duchy of Wittislich in 1302 but lost imperial power in 1482 to the Schwarzollen dynasty.

Ruttland continued to exist within the confederation as its most important non-Weranic member, even maintaining a small colonial empire, Vilcasuamanas. Fiscal mismanagement, governmental instability and Ruttland's participation in the Pereramonic Wars meant that Ruttland was significantly weakened. The 1752 the Weranic Revolution led to much of the ruling class to flee to Asteria and in 1760 Ruttland to be annexed into Vredlandia. Following Vredlandia's shift to the Reform Church Ruttland became a centre of nationalist agitation in Vredlandia.

The Vredlandian-Weranian War saw the province of Ruttland ceded to Werania where it became the Kingdom of Ruttland which was in personal union with the Kingdom of Cislania-Brücken, the main component of the Weranic state. A program of Weranicisation was carried out by state authorities leading to frequent nationalist discontent within Ruttland, primarily by the Young Ruttish Party. An unrepresentative voting system that benefited ethnic Weranics compounded this sentiment, making the "Ruttish question" one of the defining political issues of the 1800's and early 1900's in Werania. Following the Great War Ruttland's Weranic dominated landtag was dissolved being replaced with the seimas which subsequently implemented policies reversing Weranicisation. The province would continue to agitate for a strong regional identity leading to in 1986 a successful push by the central government to devolve more power to the region and formally end the monarchy in Ruttland, with the province becoming a free state.

Famed historically for its large steel industry, since deindustrilisation Ruttland has suffered from higher unemployment and lower living standards than the rest of Werania. Ruttland has however undergone a cultural revival in recent years with its capital Lipliškės being considered one of the most vibrant cities in the country.

Government and Politics

Raimundas Monkevičius (DDP-RS) has been the Minister-Chairman of Ruttland since 2009.

Ruttland has since 1940 been a unitary parliamentary elective constitutional monarchy with an independent judiciary, a bicameral legislature known as the Parliament (with an upper house known as the Lord's Chamber and a lower house known as the People's Chamber) and an executive known as the Cabinet. The head of state is the Steedhâlder, a republican executive that is officially elected by the Hearskammer amongst fellow nobles to serve a life term, but in practice acts as a ceremonial hereditary monarch. Since 1935 the position of Steedhâlder has been held by the House of Schwarzollen-Brücken. The head of government is the Prime Minister of Ruttland who heads the cabinet. Parliament has 75 members of the upper house and 200 in the lower house with the prime minister and cabinet governing with the confidence of the chamber. In practice the People's Chamber is the more powerful house. Ruttland is known internationally for its socially liberal attitudes, including on the issues of prostitution, drug use and LGBT rights.

Ruttland's political culture is largely based on sectarian lines, reflecting its pillarised society. The Sotirian democratic National Consolidation Party (Nasjonale Konsolidaasjepartij; NKP) is primarily supported by the Catholic community whilst the liberal conservative Modern Centre Party (Moderne Sintrumpartij; MS) have support from the Reform Church community. The social democratic Cooperative Party (Koöperativepartij; KÖP) traditionally courts most of its support from the secular working class, but more generally also includes left-wing sections of the urban middle class. The "unaligned" pillar, traditionally associated with liberalism, is currently represented by the Party of Freedom and Progress (Partij fan Freiheit en Progres; PFP) which supports social liberalism.

Since 2007 Ruttland has been ruled by a purple coalition of the MS and KÖP with the prime minister Rienhold Van Der Hoek being from the MS and deputy Prime Minister Edzerd Hylkema from the KÖP. The current Steedhâlder, Annigjen I, has reigned as Steedhâlder since 1975 following the death of her father Steedhâlder Rudolf XII.

Government

The executive government of Ruttland is the cabinet (Kabinet), which has 15 ministers including the Prime Minister (Minister-Presidint). The Prime Minister is officially a primus inter pares acting more as the chairman of the government rather than head of government. Traditionally, executive decisions in Ruttland are driven by consensus in the so-called "polder model". The cabinet relies on the confidence of the Royal Legislative Chamber in order to govern. Since 1987 all cabinets in Ruttland have been multi-party, giving Ruttland a tradition of coalition governments.

The current government is based on a "purple government between liberal conservative and socialist parties (so named because the former uses blue as its colour, the latter red) which has since ascending to power pursued a policy of austerity, cutting the number of ministries from 20 to 14.

Legislature

Ruttland's legislature is known as the Parliament (Parlemint) with an upper house known as the Hearskammer (Lord's Chamber) and a lower house known as the Folkskammer (People's Chamber). The Hearskammer is an entirely appointed chamber whose 75 members are either those who hold 10 heredity seats, 10 appointed by the Archdiocese of Ostbrant, 10 appointed as life peers by the monarch, and 45 elected by county councils to eight year terms. The Hearskammer's most important role is to elect the Steedhâlder upon the death of their predecessor. The directly elected Folkskammer contains 200 members elected via party-list proportional representation and has a maximum parliamentary term of 4 years. Seat allocation being formulated via the d'Hondt method with there being a 4% electoral threshold to enter the Folkskammer, which was lowered from 10% in 1989. The People's Chamber officially lends support for the government, but since 1989 it can only dissolve the government it can swear in another government to fill out the previous one's term - if this is not possible the Steedhâlder can appoint a caretaker cabinet to serve the rest of the Folkskrammer's term.

There are six parties currently sitting in the Folkskammer. The governing parties are the Modern Centre Party, a centre-right liberal conservative party with 60 seats and the Cooperative Party, a social democratic party that is more centrist than most left-wing parties - it currently has 46 seats. The main opposition party is the National Consolidation Party, a conservative party with 49 seats. Other parties include the eco-socialist anti-austerity Green-Left Party (Grienpartij) with 22 seats, the liberal Party of Freedom and Progress (Partij fan Freiheit en Progres) with 13 seats and the right-wing populist Democratic Alternative (Demokratyske Alternatyf) with 10 seats.