United States (From Sea to Shining Sea)

The United Socialist Republics of America, abbreviated as USRA and informally referred to as the "United Republics", "United America", and simply America, is a democratic country in North America.

The coming of revolution
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, many citizens of the United States began turning to communism. This lead to the creation of the American Workers' Party; a new political party with the purpose of creating a communist society in America. Sarah Leslie was elected as its leader in 1929, just after the start of the Great Depression, and gathered support from across the United States. She lead the American Workers' Party under a version of communism created by Leon Trotsky, named "Trotskyism". Members of the party traveled across the United States, increasing the popularity of Trotskyist communism. Over a year later, she lead the August Revolution, capturing Washington D.C. and signing the New American Constitution, declaring independence from the United States. This started the Second American Civil War in 1931, which lasted for the next eight years. This clash between communism and capitalism in America sparked a "Red Scare" around the world. In 1939, the United States officially surrendered to communist forces. Following its surrender, the United States was dissolved, and in its place the United Socialist Republics of America was formally established. It quickly seized the United States territory of Alaska, with Alaskan socialists easily overthrowing the Alaskan government. Alaska was then annexed as the "United Socialist Republic of Alaska". Most of the remaining United States territory, such as Cuba, managed to secure their independence. With the city of Washington, D.C. annexed into the Democratic Socialist Republic of Maryland, the number of republics was brought to 50.

Creating a workers' state at home and abroad: The Leslie Era
Under Leslie's leadership, massive campaigns were launched that greatly increased the percentage of Americans in the working class, which boosted the new country's economy, as well as distributing wealth and political power equally among the people, ending the system of social classes. Despite her belief in Trotskyism, Leslie heavily pushed for individual rights, believing individualism was key to achieving communism. At the same time, attempts to lead socialist revolutions in former United States territory failed, convincing Leslie to wait until the country was stable to lead revolutions. In 1941, after stabilizing, America declared war on Germany, recognizing Nazism as anti-communism and thus the threat to the working class. In response, Japan declared war on America and began an invasion of Hawaii. Following the collapse of Nazi Germany, America detonated two nuclear bombs on Japan, forcing their surrender in 1945. Germany was then divided among the Allies: Britain, France, Russia, and America. While the British, French, and Russian-occupied areas were reunified, the America-occupied section was transformed into an independent nation: the German Democratic Republic. This lead to a brief civil war, after which the entire country was reunified. Japan was left to America's control. Americans began supplying Japanese communists with weapons and assisting them in overthrowing the government, with the hope of incorporating it as the 51st republic.

Following the execution of Emperor Hirohito in 1947, the Japanese Civil War broke out. The Japanese Empire fell, and Japanese revolutionaries founded the Democratic People's Republic of Japan. America supported this new nation, giving it supplies and military support it required. The American-Japanese Split in 1953 caused this alliance to deteriorate, when the country developed its own form of communism, called "全自立" (translated "total self-reliance"), that transformed the country into a totalitarian dictatorship and refused to join America. The failure of Sarah Leslie to create a democratic government in Japan was universally seen as an embarrassment, and Leslie lost most of her support in America and Japan, while being shunned by the international community. Japan and America retained a partial alliance, the "Communist League", which would be dissolved in the 1970s. In The final two years of her term President Leslie's approval ratings collapsed, prompting the initiation of emergency Reforms.

An enduring star: Progress, and Pacifism
The Reforms of 1954 introduced a new set of laws intended to prevent corruption and authoritarianism in the government, such as limiting future presidents to serving only 5 terms (10 years) and limiting members of the People's Council to serving a maximum of 13 years. Following the Sino-Korean War in 1971, America's alliance with Japan and its satellite states were severed, allowing American-Russian relations to improve. In 1986, the world saw a thawing in the Cold War when America joined the United Nations. In the 2012, America joined the American Collective, a political and economic union of countries in North America, identical to the European Union and Asian Alliance. As a result, America, which had not been using money from 26 years, adopted the Continental Credit, the currency of the American Collective. Janet Kim passed the Reforms of 2015, which allowed private ownership in an attempt to both stabilize its economy, and renounced America's right to declare war, in an attempt to gain allies. This ended the Cold War. Today, American citizens enjoy the second-highest standard of living, the fifth-lowest infant mortality rate, the world's largest industry, the seventh-least corrupt and tenth-most stable government. In modern times, America benefits from a prosperous economy, a rapidly growing population, and a large arsenal of nuclear weapons, but suffers from an unorganized military and lack of international support. It is one of the world's only four remaining one-party socialist states officially espousing communism.

Form of Government
The United Socialist Republics of America is structured as a federation; a union between "socialist republics", usually referred to simply as "republics", forming the country. Each republic is run by a "Council of Workers", more commonly known as a "Workers' Council". The members of a Workers' Council are democratically elected by the citizens of a republic who are not running for political office. Each Workers' Council democratically elects 3 of its members to be representatives of their republic to the legislative branch of America. The main purpose of the federal government is to administer resources to the republics, as each republic is given the right to self-governance. Despite this, the federal government possess the power to override the decisions of a republic's government, though this can only be done if the supreme court determines the act to be unconstitutional or the majority of republics vote in favor of vetoing such decisions. This system is intended to give each republic a restricted amount of control of its neighbors, while maintaining their control over themselves. Republics cannot legally succeed from the union, unless all 3 branches of government unanimously vote in favor of Article 24 of the Constitution. Even if this did happen, it would not guarantee the dissolution of the nation, as the republic would then have to agree to leaving in order to achieve its own independence. It is intended for this to happen for a true communist utopia to established though the creation of a stateless society, but because only 5 republics are truly self-reliant, this has never happened and likely never could.

Branches of government
The federal government is comprised of 3 branches: the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch. The legislative branch is comprised of the unicameral "People's Council of the United Socialist Republics of America", more commonly referred as the "People's Council of America" or simply the "People's Council". The People's Council possess more power than the executive branch of America, the "People's President of the United Socialist Republics of America", both referred to as the "People's President of America" or simply the "People's President". The People's President is elected through direct democracy. The People's President mainly serves as an ambassador between the People's Council and the people of the country, with political power limited to mainly proposing both laws and constitutional amendments to the People's Council. The country's ambassador is selected by the "People's Supreme Court of the United Socialist Republics of America", more commonly known as the "People's Supreme Court", though this choice can be overridden by the People's Council. The federal government does not possesses a system of "checks and balances"; the legislative branch is the most powerful section of government.

Political parties
The American Workers' Party, sometimes shortened as the "Workers' Party", is the sole official party of America, though it is incredibly loose, large, and decentralized. The Workers' Party holds a monopoly on power, controlling each branch of government. It is the only major communist party in the world that espouses Trotskyism. Other political parties can be formed legally, and elect their own candidates, though these parties are banned from holding office. Despite lacking any power, alternate political parties have gained popularity since the early 2000s. In addition to the rise of opposing political parties, there has been a rise of nationalism in America. This rise of nationalism has lead to a new ideology that has become popular within the Workers' Party, referred to as "Socialism in One Country". This ideology is the exact opposite of the theory of "Permanent Revolution", as it states that communist-controlled nations (specifically America) should only work to sustain and improve themselves. This is the opposite of Permanent Revolution, which states communist nations should make every attempt to create communist governments in other countries. Socialism in One Country states that America can only survive through economic and political supremacy, which can only be done through work to improve the living conditions for its own citizens combined with peaceful negotiation efforts to gain capitalist nations as allies. The Workers' Party has become divided among supporters of Permanent Revolution and supporters of Socialism in One Country. In 2015, this division become sharper with the election of Janet Kim, the first American President to support Socialism in One Country.

Historical Development
America possess a communist mixed economy. Originally, its economy was originally a state-controlled planned economy with all businesses and enterprises being state-owned and production of capital goods being planned out by the state. Citizens, regardless of occupation and government position, were required to work for the first 7 years of their adult life. Through the 1930s and 1940s, the country's economy grew with unemployment plummeting from over 50% to below 10%. With unemployment down the economy flourished, and citizen productivity increased. Through the 1950s and 1960s, however, the economy began to stagnate, as resources were drained supporting communists in foreign countries. Through the 1970s and 1980s, the economy began to gradually decline as many American products were of little value. The Reforms of 1988 were passed by Melanie Chambers, which began to integrate America into the World Economy, changing it from a highly centralized planned economy to a mainly decentralized one. Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, state-owned industries were gradually transferred to the public.

America's mixed economy
Janet Kim passed the Reforms of 2015, fully reforming America's economy to a mixed economy, with the intention of creating a post-capitalist economy in America. These reforms banned state-owned industries, forcing existing ones to either privatize or become public-owned. In its current form, the American economy is built on the both capitalist and communist principles. American citizens are still required to work for a certain amount of time, though this decreases as the population grows. Businesses and enterprises can be both privately and publicly owned, but are not state-owned. Private businesses are owned by individuals and public ones are owned by the people as a whole, rather than an individual. Private businesses are controlled by individuals, while public ones are controlled a democratically elected council comprised of its workers. Because of how transactions in America function, those in charge of private businesses are mostly citizens going into retirement. Economic planning and government regulation is imposed on all industries, though private businesses are significantly more regulated than public ones. However, all privately-owned businesses are required to gradually become publicly-owned ones.

Transactions and Public Services
All businesses, regardless of its owners, are required by law to surrender their profits to the government; the majority of companies are publicly owned due to public stigma against private ownership. All citizens are given housing, medical care, clean water, and education for free, but citizens must pay taxes to maintain these resources. Taxes are paid every year on December 31st with Continental Credits, earned from paychecks given by the state for the the citizens' work. Citizens are essentially in a state of perpetual debt, working so they can pay it off and continue their rather luxurious lifestyle. For every months' worth of taxes paid prematurely, citizens are given a "vacation card", which allows for a week-long state-paid vacation to a location of their choosing. Although each paycheck is the same for each job is the same, a form of class divide does exist under this new system, in which those working the longest or in extremely dangerous jobs have either the most money or the most vacation cards, and can be considered the richest. Once citizens have worked for the amount required by the state requires, they are allowed and encouraged by the state, though not required, to retire. The value of goods can fluctuate according to supply and demand and property can be privately owned. Under this system, the American economy recovered and prospered, with American goods increasing and value and the American GDP growing to the largest in the world.