Svenskbygderna

Hverland Hverlandic: Hveroyken
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem: "Living God" Hverlandic: Levande Gud
Largest	Östsjö
Official languages	Hverlandic
Other languages	Icelandic, English
Ethnic groups (2019)	68% Swedish 23% Icelandic 7% Scottish 3% Norwegian 2% Polish 1% Asian <1% Faroese
Religion	Church of Hverland
Demonym(s)	Hverlander
Government	Unitary multi-party parliamentary republic with significant elements of direct democracy
• Prime Minister	Sölbrun Hallsdottir
Legislature	Rokthing
Population
• 2020 estimate	130,435 (178th)
• Density	2.9/km2 (7.5/sq mi)
GDP (PPP)	2020 estimate
• Total	$6.9 billion
• Per capita	$50,000
Gini (2017)	28.95 low
HDI (2020)	0.946 very high
Currency	Luther Mynt
Date format	dd/mm/yy (NG)
Driving side	right
Calling code	+54
ISO 3166 code	HV
Internet TLD	.hv

Hverland (Hverlandic: Hveroyken) is a small Nordic island country in the northern Atlantic Ocean. It is located around 250km southeast of Iceland and 350km from Norway. The capital city is Östsjö.

Due to Hverland's isolated and heterogenous population, the nation demonstrates a cohesive national character more clearly than many countries. That character is attributed to the inhospitable landscape, the constant darkness of its winters, and the need to work together in order to survive. Hverlanders are highly agreeable and compassionate people, reflected in the state's strong social welfare system, while also harboring conscientiousness and responsibility, reflected by the high GDP per capita, high level of educational achievement, and more recently significant technological advancements. It is both tolerant, free and peaceful, as well as neutral and isolated. The country rests on the fault lines of differing philosophies.

Hverland comes across as a typical Scandinavian-inspired state: it has liberal views towards the LGBT community, gender equality, same-sex marriage, and the death penalty, although it is unique in its relatively restrictive abortion laws. It is home to a collective bargaining culture, a strong belief in both personal and more specifically digital privacy, a high degree of public safety and a complex social insurance scheme which mixes private and public funding and provision. Hverland has reluctantly accepted the need for firearms within its uniquely-positioned society and has legalized marijuana. The development of many of Hverland's significant social reforms have been instigated by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hverland, which is the official state church of Hverland–around 72% of citizens were members of the church in 2021.

The main language spoken in Hverlandic, a close relative of Swedish. Around 90% of Hverlanders are fluent in English.  

Economically, Hverland might typically be thought of as a socialist state: incredibly generous paternity leave, government-funded job training for the unemployed, and free healthcare. But underlying these interventionist policies is a core of liberal economics. Public spending is 23% of GDP, but this has been in decline for nearly two decades and is continuing its downward trend. In the same period, public debt has more than halved from 70% of GDP to 34% thanks to a shift in the budget from an 11% deficit to a 0.8% surplus. A lot of this has come about by allowing private companies to provide public goods by competing for contracts alongside public providers. What this sort of system amounts to is not the free market guiding the public sector, but being allowed to contribute to a well-developed welfare state. Since the initial wave of liberalisation efficiency savings haven't budged much and there is continued debate about whether private firms provide the same quality as public-run services. In essence, Hverland attempts to balance a competitive business environment with a high level of public provision of goods and services. It does not do so by sticking rigidly to the traditional free-market vs. planned economy dichotomy, but by focusing on the ends it wants to achieve (such as a higher quality of life, happiness and individual autonomy, among others) and determining which means will best accomplish them.

Hverland's political system is well suited to this economic approach. Human capital is at the centre of the government's economic agenda, and its directorial democratic institutions offer an atmosphere of trust and stability which facilitates continued safe investment. Society's egalitarian nature and easy mobility further reassures Hverlanders of the system's success and ensures their support for it. While the state does employ around 30% of the labour force, the focus of policy is on individual autonomy within an open economy rather than on state direction. This is why the private sector has been brought back into state policy after clumsy top-down planning of the mid-to-late 20th century. As one example of 'intelligent government', Hverland uses a form of 'flexicurity' that allows firms to sack employees with considerable ease, but then uses government resources and facilities to provide these unemployed citizens with generous benefits and considerable assistance in finding new work. Similarly, the government uses resources to invest in innovation within problem areas, rather than trying to solve those problems through taxes which historically proved ineffective within Hverland. Essentially, the government tends to turn political projects into business plans. In other areas, such as education, the government refuses to consider private involvement, but in these cases tends to offer a considerable degree of autonomy to the local providers rather than centrally-directing efforts.

In the 1990s, Hverland suffered a deep recession following the collapse of a telecommunications bubble The government's long-term response has been to encourage a wider range of vocational courses throughout the education system and to support graduates in creating diverse start-ups through a venture-capital fund. The fund is controlled by the Federal Technological Innovation Agency, which works alongside large businesses to provide support and advice to high-potential start-ups. This example is simply to show that innovation and entrepreneurism are strongly encouraged in the Hverlandic economic system. Its flaws are twofold: (1) many start-ups remain small in scale, or (2) they move abroad when they do begin to significantly expand. Recent government efforts to counter these problems have seen corporation tax reduced from 32% to 25%, and there is talk of further cuts.

Despite the nation being known for its state of neutrality, this has been questioned in recent years, with Hverland becoming a member of NATO in 2017. Though Hverland is philosophically and constitutionally a pacifist country, it continues to maintain a minimal defense force that consists of a coast guard and national guard. Hverland is also a member of the UN, OECD, and the Nordic Council. Hverland ranks high in economic, democratic, social stability, and equality. It is consistently ranked as one of the most developed countries in the world and high on the Global Peace Index. The country runs entirely on renewable energy.