The Democratic Republic of Ghurlan is a massive, efficient nation, ruled by General Secretary with an even hand, and notable for its state-planned economy, daily referendums, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate population of 1.615 billion Ghurlanis are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, socially-minded morass — juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Ghurlstadt. The average income tax rate is 91.0%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The all-consuming Ghurlanian economy, worth 141 trillion Ghurls 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 led by the Basket Weaving industry, with significant contributions from Information Technology, Beef-Based Agriculture, and Arms Manufacturing. Average income is 87,867 Ghurls, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Increasing numbers of children in Ghurlan have different eye and hair color to their supposed fathers, children have taken to using semaphore in light of the recent mobile phone ban, cotton candy made from genuine cotton cellulose doesn't quite satisfy, and everyone wants to be on the guest list for diplomatic parties. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Ghurlan's national animal is the Reindeer, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its national religion is Radical Pantheism.

Ghurlan is ranked 26,733^rd in the world and 183^rd in The Leftist Assembly for Most Developed, scoring 84.24 on the Human Development Index.