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==History== | |||
===Prehistory=== | |||
The area of current Meᵹelan was settled at least since the 2nd millennium BC, as shown by the archaeological findings of ceramics, arrows, axes and carved stones; in the following centuries it was inhabited by different peoples, who founded several cities and spread the use of writing; those cities, starting from the 5th century BC, were taken over by several Gallic tribes, that founded a confederation. | |||
Each tribe was divided into cantons, each governed by a chief of its own with a judge under him, whose powers were unlimited except in cases of murder, which were tried before a council of 300 drawn from the cantons and meeting at a holy place, written in ancient sources as 𐌌𐌄𐌕𐌉𐌏𐌋𐌀𐌍𐌏𐌍 - ''Mediolanon'', "in the midst of the plain": originally a sanctuary to the Gaulish goddess Belisama, its name would eventually be given to the country as a whole. | |||
==Politics== | ==Politics== | ||
The Meᵹelaneſe state is united not by a single pact, but by overlapping pacts and bilateral treaties between members; the parties generally agree to preserve the peace, aid in military endeavours and arbitrate disputes. These pacts and treaties are founded on the principle of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidiarity subsidiarity], and each higher body only exists to fulfill those needs that cannot be sufficiently met by the lower body. This has resulted in a situation of ''de facto'' [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asymmetric_federalism asymmetric federalism]: the different constituent bodies of the Meᵹelaneſe state possess different powers, as detailed by each pact and treaty, and the division of powers between these bodies is not symmetric, although they have the same constitutional status. | The Meᵹelaneſe state is united not by a single pact, but by overlapping pacts and bilateral treaties between members; the parties generally agree to preserve the peace, aid in military endeavours and arbitrate disputes. These pacts and treaties are founded on the principle of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidiarity subsidiarity], and each higher body only exists to fulfill those needs that cannot be sufficiently met by the lower body. This has resulted in a situation of ''de facto'' [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asymmetric_federalism asymmetric federalism]: the different constituent bodies of the Meᵹelaneſe state possess different powers, as detailed by each pact and treaty, and the division of powers between these bodies is not symmetric, although they have the same constitutional status. | ||
Revision as of 17:24, 31 March 2019
Civitas of Meᵹelan Civitas di Meſiolano | |
|---|---|
Flag
Coat of arms
| |
Motto: "Tiremm innanz" (Insubric) "We carry on" | |
Anthem: "La bella Gigogin" (Insubric) "Teresa the Beautiful"  | |
| File:MGLNMAP250.png Location of Meᵹelan (orange) in Tyran | |
| Capital | None (de jure) |
| Largest | Alba |
| Official languages | Tuscan |
| Recognised national languages | Insubric Orobic |
| Recognised regional languages | Alemannish Emilian Ladin |
| Ethnic groups (2019) | 86.2% Meᵹelaneſe 13.8% Other |
| Religion (2019) | 34.9% No religion or undeclared 32.1% Folk Christianity 29.4% Modern Paganism 3.6% Other |
| Demonym(s) | Meᵹelaneſe |
| Government | Confederation |
• Prior | Luisa Bianchi |
• Vice Prior | Giuseppina Gabrielli |
| Legislature | Grand Council of Meᵹelan |
| Council of Nine Hundred | |
| General Council | |
| Establishment | |
• Foundation date | 14 August 1447 |
• Current constitution | 15 september 1996 |
| Area | |
• Total | 34,112.37 km2 (13,170.86 sq mi) |
| Population | |
• 2019 estimate | 5,136,854 |
• Density | 150.5/km2 (389.8/sq mi) |
| GDP (PPP) | 2019 estimate |
• Total | $271 billion |
• Per capita | $52,862.5 |
| GDP (nominal) | 2019 estimate |
• Total | $304 billion |
• Per capita | $59,183.5 |
| Gini (2019) | 31.3 medium |
| HDI (2019) | 0.912 very high |
| Currency | Scudo (Ƨ) (SCU) |
| Time zone | UTC+1 |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+2 |
| Date format | dd-mm-yyyy (aID) |
| Driving side | left |
| Calling code | +42 |
| Internet TLD | .meg |
History
Prehistory
The area of current Meᵹelan was settled at least since the 2nd millennium BC, as shown by the archaeological findings of ceramics, arrows, axes and carved stones; in the following centuries it was inhabited by different peoples, who founded several cities and spread the use of writing; those cities, starting from the 5th century BC, were taken over by several Gallic tribes, that founded a confederation.
Each tribe was divided into cantons, each governed by a chief of its own with a judge under him, whose powers were unlimited except in cases of murder, which were tried before a council of 300 drawn from the cantons and meeting at a holy place, written in ancient sources as 𐌌𐌄𐌕𐌉𐌏𐌋𐌀𐌍𐌏𐌍 - Mediolanon, "in the midst of the plain": originally a sanctuary to the Gaulish goddess Belisama, its name would eventually be given to the country as a whole.
Politics
The Meᵹelaneſe state is united not by a single pact, but by overlapping pacts and bilateral treaties between members; the parties generally agree to preserve the peace, aid in military endeavours and arbitrate disputes. These pacts and treaties are founded on the principle of subsidiarity, and each higher body only exists to fulfill those needs that cannot be sufficiently met by the lower body. This has resulted in a situation of de facto asymmetric federalism: the different constituent bodies of the Meᵹelaneſe state possess different powers, as detailed by each pact and treaty, and the division of powers between these bodies is not symmetric, although they have the same constitutional status.
Legislature
The Meᵹelaneſe regard elections as inherently aristocratic, since only those with money and status can win; to the Meᵹelaneſe, selection by lot is an essential feature of democracy, as are the principles of isonomia, the equal right of all citizens to exercise their political rights, and isegoria, the equal right of all citizens to be heard, speak and make proposals. For this reason, in the upper house of the country's legislature - the Council of Nine Hundred - the functions and powers of lawmaking are divided among multiple bodies whose members are selected by lot among interested people; through sortition, all citizens who wish have an equal chance and high likelihood of serving in public office.
The Agenda Sub-council of the Council of Nine Hundred is made up of 150 paid volunteers selected by lot; they serve 3-year terms, with one third of members replaced each year, but they are not allowed to serve consecutive terms. The Agenda Council creates and updates a list of issue areas; then, it decides which topics in each area need new laws written, or which existing laws need changing - but doesn’t draft bills or vote on them.
The Interest Panels of the Council of Nine Hundred are made up of 12 unpaid volunteers each; they only serve long enough to draft a bill, but can serve consecutive terms. There is one Interest Panel for each issue or topic highlighted by the Agenda Council, and their duty is to produce one draft bill for each of those issues and topics; the panels can either be formed by lot or be self organized: self-selection at the level of the Interest Panels allows experts who would be unelectable (due to their appearance, class, personality, or other traits) to contribute to governance.
The Review Panels of the Council of Nine Hundred are made up of a total of 150 paid individuals selected by lot out of all the country's adult citizens; those who accept to serve are then split according to issue areas; they serve 3-year terms, with one third of members replaced each year, but they are not allowed to serve consecutive terms. They don’t choose what issue area they will be assigned to, in order to avoid possible domination of the panels by special interests, and their duty is to review draft bills from Interest Panels, amend and combine bills, and produce final proposed bills that will go to a vote - but they don’t initiate bills or cast the final votes.
The Policy Juries of the Council of Nine Hundred are made up of a total of 400 paid individuals selected by lot out of all the country's adult citizens, to be as statistically representative of the whole people as possible; they are then split according to the number of bills. Jury service is nominally mandatory, though with reasonable hardship excuses. Each Policy Jury hears pro and con presentations about one bill, and makes the final decision, in a week or less - but the members don’t set agendas or write bills.
The Rules Sub-council of the Council of Nine Hundred is made up of 50 paid volunteers selected by lot out of all those who have previously served in the legislature; they serve 3-year terms, with one third of members replaced each year, but they are not allowed to serve consecutive terms. The Rules Sub-council handles work that is not part of making laws, but that is about the lawmaking process - for example, deciding the procedural and ethics rules to be used by the other bodies.
The Oversight Sub-council of the Council of Nine Hundred is made up of 20 paid volunteers selected by lot; they serve 3-year terms, with one third of members replaced each year, but they are not allowed to serve consecutive terms. This body handles oversight of the lawmaking process, including the work of support staff. It also evaluates implementation of laws by the executive.
The lower house of the country's legislature - the General Council - is instead an instrument of direct democracy: abrogative, confirmative and legislative referenda, petitions, popular initiatives and recall elections are all present in Meᵹelan; de jure, the General Council has no leader or fixed meeting place, and is made up of all Meᵹelaneſe citizens.
These legislative bodies are assisted by a permanent support staff for tasks such as researching issues, setting up testimony from experts and members of affected groups, documentation of deliberations and actions, and providing technical support for electronic communications.
Executive
The executive of Meᵹelan is founded on the principle of collegiality; there are two people in each position of the executive - dividing power and responsibilities among several people, both to prevent the rise of authoritarian personalities and to ensure more productive members of the executive.
The chief executive and their deputy - the Prior and the Vice Prior - are appointed by a Hiring Panel whose members are randomly selected from the citizenry; they serve as long as necessary to make a hiring decision, and then disband. If someone is chosen and they don't want to serve, they can opt out and be replaced by another randomly selected person. The chief executive is primarily an administrator and a policy advisor, not a policy maker; most policy decisions are made by the legislature instead.
The Prior then appoints Meᵹelan's department heads and their deputies, but these appointments require review and confirmation by other randomly selected, one-time Hiring Panels; while chief executives and department heads can be removed from office at any time, there are no term limits, and good executives can serve for decades.
In order to hold the executive accountable, a randomly selected Performance Review Panel periodically reviews the performance of the chief executive, and similar panels review the performance of each department head; if a Performance Review Panel initiates a firing procedure, a randomly selected Accountability Jury hears the arguments, weighs the evidence, and makes the final decision.
There are 6 government departments in Meᵹelan, and each one is headed by a minister and their deputy.
| Portfolio | Minister | Deputy | Portfolio | Minister | Deputy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Premier | Minister of Home Affairs | ||||
| Minister of Foreign Affairs | Minister of Defence | ||||
| Minister of Justice | Minister of Finance |
Judiciary
Legal pluralism - the existence of multiple legal systems within one (human) population and/or geographic area - is at the heart of the judiciary of Meᵹelan; each of the vast number of political and social units in Meᵹelan can interpret and apply the law. Law in Meᵹelan can be subdivided into two broad subcategories:
- Customary law, developed organically over extended periods of time; has no single known origin.
- Privately produced law, fully developed in accordance with the intentions of known parties.
If the defendant and the plaintiff in a trial fall under different jurisdictions, the law of the defendant takes precedence; a 27-member Senate acts as the country's supreme court, whose decisions are not subject to further review by any other court. Meᵹelaneſe legal proceedings are informal, and there is no professional legal class - lay people are instead chosen to adjudicate, through a process of selection by lot and replacement identical to that employed by the sub-councils of the legislature, and the courts decide by majority vote.
Government finance
Government is funded entirely on a voluntary basis: the Civitas and all other subdivisions in the country are denied any powers of taxation, and can only request money from the subdivisions they are above of: the Civitas to the states, the states to the cities and shires, those to the civil parishes and quarters, those to the hamlets and wards, those to the neighbourhoods and the neighbourhoods to the families.
The responsibility for tax revenue collection in Meᵹelan is assigned to private citizens or groups, and each neighbourhood is able to select its source of revenue; land value taxes and property taxes are often used.
Moreover, businesses which are sole proprietors, crafts, or small independent farms are not taxed at all; businesses from two to ten employees pay 5%; ten to fifty employees, 10%; fifty to one hundred, 20%; one hundred to five hundred, 40%; five hundred on up, 80%; and so forth. Taxation on larger businesses grows exponentially in relation to the size of the business, to the point where businesses which are too large have to devolve themselves into multiple smaller businesses, to avoid being taxed out of existence.
Military
The Meᵹelaneſe armed forces are composed mostly of conscripts, male and female citizens aged from 20 to 34 (in special cases up to 50) years. Men and women born in the country usually receive military conscription orders for training at the age of 18; for those found unsuited, and for those not willing to serve in the military, various forms of alternative service exist.
The structure of the Meᵹelaneſe militia system stipulates that the soldiers keep their issued equipment, including all personal weapons, at home; gun politics in Meᵹelan are unique in Tyran in that the ratio of civilian guns per capita is of 39.1 guns every 100 people.
Within the Civitas, each state is responsible for maintaining certain units - a contingent of 2% of their population - to be put at the disposal of the country as a whole in case of conflict. When operating together, the units are known as the Citizens' Defence Force. In peacetime, the armed forces are led by the Praetor - the Minister of Defence - while in times of crisis or war, a Dictator is appointed; the rank is distinct and particular, as it is associated exclusively with wartime fighting or a national crisis due to wartime fighting among the neighbours on the border.
Controversially, Meᵹelaneſe citizens tend to be overrepresented in private military companies providing armed combat or security services for financial gain, both as employees and as employers, and Meᵹelaneſe firearms manufacturing companies have supplied weapons for every major war in Tyran since the late Middle Ages and the early modern period.
Law enforcement and crime
Law enforcement in Meᵹelan is primarily the responsibility of peacekeeping associations of armed individuals and protective municipal leagues, with the national gendarmerie providing broader services.
The former evolved from medieval origins, and work as local militias to protect the towns they come from; the latter are a military component with jurisdiction in civil law enforcement, and are therefore a branch of the armed forces responsible for internal security, with additional duties as a military police for the armed forces. The members of the gendarmerie are often nicknamed ramolazzil, from the local name of a species of turnip, due to the colours of their uniform: green and white, with the first being prevalent.
In spite of high rates of civilian gun ownership, Meᵹelan still has one of the lowest crime rates in Tyran with a murder rate of 0-1,5 per year; the yearly number of break-ins and cases of theft are below 500 for the entire country; in Meᵹelaneſe law, the death penalty is absent, but criminals can be withdrawn all legal protection, so that anyone is legally empowered to persecute or kill them.
Administrative divisions
Meᵹelan is subdivided into 10 states; they have a high degree of independence. The states' cities are further subdivided into quarters, that are subdivided into wards; the states' rural areas - the shires - are further subdivided into civil parishes, that are subdivided into hamlets.
Below the hamlet and the ward, there are neighbourhoods, and then there is the family: in accordance with the aforementioned principle of subsidiarity, higher orders of communities in a society only exist to fulfill social needs that cannot be sufficiently met by the family; therefore, individual families in Meᵹelan can enter pacts and sign treaties with each other, if they belong to the same hamlet or ward, and the hamlet or ward in which they reside.
The country has no fixed capital; the executive, judiciary and legislative branches of the Meᵹelaneſe government are hosted in three different state capitals, where they reside for 3 years; each year, one branch of the Meᵹelaneſe government moves to another state capital, through a process of selection by lot and replacement identical to that employed by the sub-councils of the legislature and by the Senate.
States
Meᵹelan consists of 10 states; they are governed by institutions not unlike those of the Civitas itself.
| Code | State | Code | State | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Demographics
Meᵹelan has 5,136,854 inhabitants. Resident foreigners make up 13.8% of the population. Cacertans are the largest single group of foreigners, with 15.6% of total foreign population, followed closely by Gylians (15.2%), immigrants from Akashi (12.7%), Acrea (5.6%), Syara (5.3%), Æsthurlavaj (3.8%), Nordkrusen (3.7%), and Ruvelka (2%); around 10% of the Gylian citizens belong to the Ŋej ethnic group.
Citizenship is not granted at birth; those descended from two Meᵹelaneſe parents are granted citizenship when they have completed a period of civil service or military service, while those descended from one Meᵹelaneſe parent and a foreign parent or two foreign parents have to demonstrate that they are well integrated, familiar with life in Meᵹelan, and have both oral and written competence in one of the national languages of Meᵹelan, in addition to completing a period of civil service or military service.
Meᵹelaneſe nationals are citizens of their neighbourhood of origin, their hamlet/ward of origin, their civil parish/quarter of origin, their city/shire of origin and the Civitas, in this order; the civil and political rights of the citizens take this into account - it is not possible for a citizen of Meᵹelan to hold office in a subdivision they do not reside in.
Urbanisation
Only 17.3% of the population of Meᵹelan lives in urban areas, since it is spread across most of the country, and industrialisation has been remarkably decentralised; the country has therefore maintained quite a viable rural culture. Large, medium and small towns are complementary, resulting in a coherent economic and cultural sphere that covers almost 90% of the population - the importance of the country's urban areas is therefore stronger than their number of inhabitants suggests.
Largest towns
| Rank | Name | State | Population | Rank | Name | State | Population | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Languages
Meᵹelan has five national languages: mainly Insubric in the west, Orobic in the east, and Emilian in the south; The fourth and fifth national languages, Alemannish and Ladin, are spoken locally in a few valleys in the north. Aside from the official forms of their respective languages, the five linguistic regions of Meᵹelan also have their local dialectal forms.
The language of instruction and government is Tuscan, but the various dialects are used in newspapers, television, and radio, are used as everyday languages, and learning one of the other national languages at school is compulsory for all Meᵹelaneſe pupils.
Religion
Religion has never played an important role on the political or ideological battlefield of Meᵹelan; ever since the forced Christianization of the country by the crusaders of Æsthurlavaj and Nordkrusen, the Meᵹelaneſe people have been historically characterised as tolerant and even indifferent towards religion; the Futurist policy of state atheism further broke the chain of religious traditions in most Meᵹelaneſe families.
According to the 2019 census, 34.9% of the population stated they had no religion.
Christianity in Meᵹelan is traditionally divided into three different confessions: the Dulcinians, the Guglielmites and the Patarines. All three were born as heresies of the Catholic Church, and their leaders defied the rich, secular, aristocratic landowners and the simoniacal and nicolaitan clergy, seen as tools of Æsthurlavaj and Nordkrusen. Today, 32.1% of the population adheres to these churches.
Since the fall of the Futurist regime, there has been a revival and spread of new religious groups and alternative spiritualities; these religious movements are diverse, and no single set of beliefs, practices or texts are shared by them all. Many follow a spirituality which they accept as being entirely modern, while others attempt to reconstruct or revive the indigenous, ethnic religion as found in historical and folkloric sources as accurately as possible. 29.4% of the population currently practices these faiths.
A small minority - 3.6% of the population - follows other religions, notably Meᵹelaneſe Jews and the descendants of refugees from Gylias.
Family structure
Meᵹelan has a marriage rate of 3.1 marriages per 1,000 inhabitants, and 73% of births were to unmarried women; abortion is legal throughout the country, and the teenage birth rate is of 5.4 children per 1000 women. The total fertility rate is of 1.5 births per 1000 women, but adoption is common and relatively easy from a legal point of view. Same-sex marriage is legal nationwide, and it is also legal for same-sex couples to adopt. Polygamy, on the other hand is illegal.
The basic family unit in Meᵹelan is the extended family - a family that extends beyond the nuclear family, consisting of parents like father, mother, and their children, aunts, uncles, and cousins, all living in the same household; child care responsibilities are shared between all members of the family: male relatives help in raising their children and other children, and the workload is shared among the members of the family in the same way.
To a large extent, individual families handle their own internal affairs; it is not unheard of for especially prominent families to be associated with a certain district, and for the heads of those families - usually, their oldest surviving member, whether male or female - to exercise a kind of authority over that area.
Health
The Meᵹelaneſe state does not have a universal public healthcare system; however, medical professionals in Meᵹelan can form guilds with the power to grant various licenses. They are the sole judges of the qualifications required, and they set the practice standards and prices; the guilds can establish their own clinics, their own training and education programs, their own pharmacies, labs, administrative structures, and whatever else is necessary to medical practice.
These guilds treat people for a fixed annual fee, and are required to devote a certain amount of their resources to free or low-cost care for the impoverished or indigent; the duty of qualifying people as eligible for such reduced-cost treatment falls to government institutions, that can also pay a part or all of the cost of such care.
Since the guilds are the sole judges of the qualifications and practices of its members, there is a great diversity of practical approaches; however, the guilds are also responsible for the competence and good conduct of their members - that is to say, when a patient has a complaint, they sue not the doctor, but the guild - and outright quackery is forbidden.
In 2019, life expectancy at birth was 80.9 years for men and 85.0 years for women.
Economy
Meᵹelan has a major advanced distributist mixed economy, in which the ownership of the means of production is spread as widely as possible among the general populace, rather than being centralised under the control of the state or a few large businesses or wealthy private individuals.
Owners of small productive property are grouped into guilds, federations of autonomous workshops, where the owners - the masters - normally make all decisions and establish the requirements for promotion from the lower ranks - journeymen or hired helpers, and apprentices; however, property and equipment can also be co-owned by local communities. Guilds normally forbid overtime work after dark and sometimes limit the number of dependents a master can employ; this also serves to maintain substantial equality among masters and to prevent overexpansion of the craft.
Guilds take on many of the subsidiary functions usually performed by government, such as pensions and health insurance, they own their own industrial banks or credit unions to provide financial services to guild members and their families - especially financing for those starting out in the field - and they act as trade associations to represent the trade to outside interested parties.
Guilds have their chief loci of activities in one particular city or district, but, depending on the industry, the technology employed, source of raw materials, et cetera, there also are regional, national, even international federations. These federations of local guilds are also the first place in which disputes between guilds are adjudicated, with appeal to civil courts as a last resort.
The national currency of Meᵹelan is the scudo (Ƨ); it is subdivided into 6 lire, each of 20 soldi or 240 denari.
Primary sector
Fields, farms and woods in Meᵹelan are either owned by small local family farmers, or are under the common ownership of individual neighbourhoods; because of this, the agricultural sector of Meᵹelan, even though it is among the most productive in Tyran, is still characterised by an intensive use of labour rather than capital.
Rural Meᵹelaneſe villages are characterized by the presence of square-yarded farms acting as isolated, semi-autonomous settlements with sometimes as much as one hundred inhabitants, including public buildings such as churches, inns, and schools. Farms located close enough to larger urban areas and cities specialize in cultivating fresh, perishable vegetables, that are very profitable in urban markets.
The productivity of agriculture is enhanced by a well-developed use of fertilisers and the traditional abundance of water, boosted since the Middle Ages by the construction of a wide net of irrigation systems. Lower plains are characterised by fodder crops, which are mowed up to eight times a year, cereals - rice, wheat and maise - and sugar beet. Productions of the higher plains include cereals, vegetables, fruit trees and mulberries, while the higher areas produce fruit and wine. Cattle, pigs and sheep are also raised.
Moreover, sericulture has been an important cottage industry in Meᵹelan ever since the 12th century.
Secondary sector
The industry of Meᵹelan is especially made of small and medium-sized businesses, which are active in several sectors: food products, wood and furniture, leather and footwear, textiles and clothing, gold jewelry, but also chemistry, metal-mechanics and electronics. Production is decentralized, and fulfilled through owner-operated small businesses and worker-controlled cooperatives under the aegis of the guilds.
The country's secondary sector is therefore characterised by a smaller number of global multinational corporations than other economies of comparable size and a large number of dynamic small and medium-sized enterprises that are often focused on the export of niche market and luxury products; even though it is less capable to compete on quantity, it is nonetheless capable of facing the competition from economies based on lower labour costs with higher quality products.
Meᵹelan is also a center for the manufacture of weapons, and Meᵹelaneſe firearms are used throughout Tyran for a variety of civilian, law enforcement, and military purposes.
Tertiary sector
Meᵹelan's development has been marked by the growth of the services sector since the 1980s, and in particular by the growth of innovative activities in the sector of services to enterprises and in credit and financial services. Enforcement of interest-rate contracts - usury - is not legal, and credit unions - financial cooperatives controlled by their members - have largely replaced the private bank system.
Meᵹelan has low tax rates by Western World standards, and a strong cooperative sector, with the largest share of the population employed by a cooperative in Tyran outside Gylias. Therefore, the duties of the public sector in Meᵹelan are often carried out through outsourcing, either to non-governmental organizations or privately owned businesses.
Widespread protectionism limits the country's ability to attract multinational companies from abroad, but the country has nonetheless been able to become a major world fashion centre, with the international fashion business having become a significant employer in Meᵹelan. Tourism, too, is an increasingly important part of the country's economy.
Education and science
Education in Meᵹelan is very diverse because the authority for the school system is delegated to the states; typically, the pupils' parents, as a body, own primary and secondary schools, running them as charities or co-operatives for the benefit of the children, free of government control. Just over 2% of children are homeschooled.
Universities, on the other hand, are actual guilds owned and run by groups of teachers and students; classes are taught wherever space is available, even in churches and homes - since universities are not understood as a physical space, but as a collection of individuals banded together as a universitas.
The biggest universities, however, rent, buy or construct buildings specifically for the purposes of teaching, and it is also characteristic of teachers and scholars to move around: universities often compete to secure the best and most popular teachers, and popular teachers often bring students with them.
Through the centuries, Meᵹelaneſe citizens have made important contributions to a variety of fields: Anna Mariani (1718-1799) was the first woman to write a mathematics handbook and the first woman appointed as a mathematics professor at a university; Filippo Inzaghi (1745-1827) is credited as the inventor of the electric battery and the discoverer of methane; Benedetto Rozzo (1811-1885) created a prototype typewriter that let the user see the writing as it was typed. Scientific research and development remains important in Meᵹelaneſe universities, with many establishing science parks to facilitate production and co-operation with industry.
Energy, infrastructure and environment
The energy sector in Meᵹelan is, by its structure and its importance, typical of a developed country; apart from hydroelectricity and biomass, the country has few indigenous energy resources - renewable energy has therefore developed rapidly over the past decade, to provide the country a means to lessen its historical dependency on imported fuels.
All Meᵹelaneſe states have deployed some source of renewable energy, with hydroelectric power being the leading renewable energy source in terms of production; rapid growth in the deployment of solar, wind and bio energy in recent years led to Meᵹelan producing over 40% of its electricity from renewable sources, but an important share of electricity still comes from import, mainly from Acrea.
Meᵹelan has a well developed transport infrastructure - if an uneven one: Meᵹelan has the least dense road network and the most dense rail network in Tyran. Both of these are co-operatively managed and financed by permits as well as taxes. Meᵹelan has one of the best environmental records among nations in the developed world; the country is heavily active in recycling and anti-littering regulations and is one of the top recyclers in Tyran.
Culture
Historically, while the culture of Meᵹelan has been heavily influenced by that of neighboring Cacerta, it has nevertheless managed to develop a unique cultural identity that is distinct from its larger neighbor. Meᵹelaneſe culture can be seen to build upon a heritage of comparatively widespread egalitarianism out of practical reasons and the ideals of closeness to nature and self-sufficiency.
Meᵹelaneſe are known for their deep sense of community: this high level of social cohesion is attributed to the small size and homogeneity of the population, as well as to a long history of mutual aid and mutual defense, first expressed in the medieval commune and its guild system.
Architecture
Meᵹelan has a very broad and diverse architectural style, and its cities are characterized by a highly diverse and eclectic range in architectural designs; Meᵹelaneſe modern and contemporary architecture can be however understood as a reaction against the kind of architecture advocated by prominent Futurist Political Party figure Antonio Panzilla - his ideal city was highly industrialized and mechanized, not a mass of individual buildings but a vast, multi-level, interconnected and integrated urban conurbation of vast monolithic skyscraper buildings with terraces, bridges and aerial walkways.
The demolition of significant portions of the historic centers of Meᵹelan's cities during the Futurist era was followed by their complete reconstruction after the Great War, that restored their pre-war appearance; subsequent development was influenced by New Classical architecture and New Urbanism, leading to the creation of walkable neighborhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types, built in visual styles that consciously echo the styles of previous architectural eras.
Clothing
Meᵹelaneſe handicrafts are mainly based on materials available to local villages - mainly silk and wool; there has recently been a strong revival of interest in Meᵹelaneſe knitting, with young people knitting and wearing updated versions of old patterns emphasized by strong colours and bold patterns. This appears to be a reaction to the loss of traditional lifestyles, and as a way to maintain and assert cultural tradition in a rapidly-changing society. Many young people study and move abroad, and this helps them maintain cultural links with their specific Meᵹelaneſe heritage.
Meᵹelan has established a long history within the fields of fashion, textiles and design in general; the Meᵹelaneſe approach to fashion is devoted to sobriety, simplicity and the quality of the fabric. This results in a generally sombre and simple style, that is moderate in terms of decoration and ornamentation, and that emphasizes the quality of tailoring and the different fabrics and textiles.
Therefore, the country's numerous boutiques sell both elegant and everyday clothes, and Meᵹelaneſe designs are known for their practicality and simple elegance. The city of Alba became one of Tyran's capitals for ready-to-wear female and male fashion in the 1970s, and started to become an internationally successful and famous fashion capital towards the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Music
Music has always played an important role in Meᵹelaneſe culture, and holds an important position in society and in politics. The oldest surviving Meᵹelaneſe folk song dates back to the 5th century and, since then, the country has produced a rich repertoire of folk tunes, that can be subdivided into four categories: ancient epic ballads not unlike those found in Ossoria; religious and ritual music, born out of popular devotion; love songs; songs related to crafts, agricultural labour and, later, industrial labour; pub and tavern songs.
Opera became immensely popular in the 19th century, and was known across even the most rural sections of the country; most villages had occasional opera productions, and the genre also spread through itinerant ensembles and brass bands, that used instruments to perform operatic arias - with trombones or fluegelhorns for male vocal parts, and cornets for female parts.
The figure of the barbapedana dates back to the 19th century, too: they were buskers that toured pubs and taverns, entertaining diners and hosts with doggerels and songs; eventually, they started touring the first cafés-chantants as well, adopting a look not unlike that of the foreign chansonniers of that period.
Recorded popular music began in the late 19th century, with the first Meᵹelaneſe song festival taking place in 1891; popular performers were able to travel abroad, bringing back with them new styles and techniques: elements of harmony and melody from both jazz and blues began to be used in many popular songs, whose rhythms often came, on the other hand, from Latin dances like the tango, rumba and beguine.
After the Great War, singer-songwriters who focused on topics of social relevance, going as far as to sing about the criminal element and the underworld of the country, became quite popular; rock and roll, on the other hand, first broke into Meᵹelaneſe audiences with the arrival of Gylian band The Sunday Girls in the early 1960s.
At first, Meᵹelaneſe rock acts and bands relied heavily on Gylian Sound influences, but in the mid-1960s musicians began exploring local musical roots, creating a local sound that came to be known as rock nazionale, or national rock; it was widely embraced by the youth and, since then, it has become part of the country's musical identity as much as traditional music.
Film scores, although they are secondary to the film, are often critically acclaimed and very popular in their own right.
Sport
Sport plays an important role in Meᵹelaneſe culture; aside from traditional Meᵹelaneſe sports such as bocce, pallone, scherma tradizionale, several cue sports variants and the annual Palio athletic contests (contests that commemorate some event or tradition of the Middle Ages, and are thus fought in costume and often involve horse racing, archery, jousting, crossbow shooting, and similar medieval sports) the most popular sports in the country are association football, basketball, volleyball, and cycling.
Clubs are owned by supporters' groups, and have their catchment areas defined by the local civil parish and quarter boundaries: the purpose of this rule is to ensure that local teams are represented by local players, and to prevent players flocking to a more successful club outside of the local area.
All of the major sports leagues are governed by collectively bargained labour agreements between ownership and players, and there are salary caps as well as salary floors; these ensure that no team can simply outspend others to stockpile better talent and guarantee success.
The main competitions at all levels of Meᵹelaneſe sport are the championships (knock-out tournaments) and the leagues (round-robin tournaments); of these, the championships tend to attain the most prestige. Moreover, championships and leagues can be organized on a club basis (contested by individual clubs) or an inter-state basis (contested by teams formed from the best players playing at club level in each state); of these, the inter-state championships and leagues tend to attain the most prestige.
Etiquette
The Meᵹelaneſe have a code of etiquette which governs social behaviour, developed over the millennia through the absorption of Celtic, Latin and Germanic influences at first, and of Gylic and Miranian influences through later contact. - a subtle compromise between the Law of Jante, whose purpose is to aggressively deny that anyone is better than anyone else, and the desire and drive to promote a person's achievements through acts of pomp and ostentation typical of the feudal nobility and urban patriciate of old.
The result, is a pride in subtlety or ostentatious humility, where a person's achievements are promoted by refusing to make an issue out of it; it is believed that the genuine possession of authority, power, wealth, achievement, et cetera can be best shown off by refusing to show it off. The assumption is that the esteem and position involved is so clear that to point it out is boorish and unnecessary.
Due to this, the people holding the most powerful political posts in the country wear no uniform at all - not even so much as a sash - and proper address is usually by name, or simply by title. Moreover, the Meᵹelaneſe one is a fairly low-context culture, where direct verbal communication is needed to properly understand a message being said, and doing so relies heavily on explicit verbal skills.
Gift-giving is especially important to Meᵹelaneſe; they developed the custom of giving away gifts on their birthdays, instead of receiving them: even births, deaths, adoptions, weddings, and other major events are characterized by gift-giving feasts not unlike potlatches.
Cuisine
The cuisine of Meᵹelan is heavily based upon ingredients like maize, rice, beef, pork, butter, and lard. In many aspects, Meᵹelaneſe cuisine has much in common with that of Acrea, being being more meat-based and buttery than the cuisine of neighbouring Cacerta and lacking the presence of tomato and olive oil typical of that cuisine.
In general, the cuisine of the various states of Meᵹelan can be united by the following traits: prevalence of rice and stuffed pasta on dry pasta, butter instead of olive oil for cooking, dishes with prolonged cooking, as well as widespread use of pork, milk and dairy products, and egg-based preparations.
Rice-based food is highly common throughout the country, and is often served with saffron or sausage; maize-based dishes are are also common parts of the national cuisine. The most ancient Meᵹelaneſe dish is however cuz, a stew of mature sheep meat cooked in its own lard.
Media
Meᵹelan has historically boasted the greatest number of newspaper titles published in proportion to its population and size; almost every city has at least one local newspaper, but the most influential one on a national level is the centrist Evening Courier.
The government exerts greater control over broadcast media than print media, especially due to finance and licensing: the Meᵹelaneſe Radio Broadcasting Corporation, or Società Meſiolaneſe di Radiodiffusione - commercially styled as SMR, and founded in 1931 - is charged with the production and broadcast of radio and television programmes. The SMR has a federally orientated structure, where several private radio and television stations cooperate to produce programs for the national channels.
Radio - and not television - is the most accessible and used medium in Meᵹelan, with 83% of Meᵹelaneſe citizens saying they get news and information from radio, a consequence of the relatively low cost of broadcasting and producing radio content; radio drama remains popular in Meᵹelan: the aforementioned factors allow radio stations to take chances with works by unknown writers, and the lack of visuals also enable fantastical settings and effects to be used in radio plays where the cost would be prohibitive for movies or television.
75,3% of the population uses the Internet; the Meᵹelaneſe Internet has a "no rules" policy, except for bans on certain illegal content, all of which are inherited from wider Meᵹelaneſe law. Therefore, websites with the .meg domain often feature content that would be illegal elsewhere; this has turned the .meg Internet TLD into a very profitable one for the country.
Symbols
The flag of Meᵹelan was officially adopted in 1998, but the device it depicts is an ancient one: the rising and setting sun indicates the beginning and the end of rural activities, while the moon, with its phases, is linked to pruning, sowing, rains, tides, and births. The national anthem of the country, on the other hand, is La bella Gigogin, a 19th century patriotic song based on several old folk tunes.
The national personifications of the Civitas are Domenico - a witty servant characterized by honesty, sincerity and a strong sense of justice - and his colleague and wife Francesca, cheerful and smiling, able to solve domestic problems thanks to her imagination, her good will, and her ability; they were created and popularized as characters of the 16th century Commedia dell'arte, an early form of professional theatre representing fixed social types and stock characters.
Another popular representation of the nation is the Gaulish goddess Belisama, later identified with Minerva and with Mary, the mother of Jesus; her name can be taken to translate to "the brightest one", and she was worshipped as the queen of light and heat; by extension, she was also known for her influence on those arts and crafts related to fire and, consequently, on craftsmanship as a whole.
A popular folk theory links the goddess to the solar device depicted on the national flag.