United States (From Sea to Shining Sea)

The United Socialist Republics of America, abbreviated as USRA and informally referred to as America, is a communist 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 its weak government being easily overthrown. Alaska was then annexed as the "United Socialist Republic of Alaska". Most of the remaining United States territory, such as Cuba, was left as independent. With West Virginia and Virginia united as the "Virginian People's Republic", 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. 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 Shōwa in 1947, the Empire of Japan fell and in its place Japanese revolutionaries founded the Democratic People's Republic of Japan. America supported this new nation, until 1949, 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 that refused to join America, causing the American-Japanese Split. 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. This was especially damaging at the time, as America and Russia were briefly involved in a cold war. In the two years of her last term, her disapproval ratings were so great that all she accomplished was to pass the Reforms of 1950.

An enduring star: Progress, and Pacifism
The reforms of 1950 simply changed the central ideology of the American Workers' Party from Trotskyism to Marxism-Trotskyism. These were the same, except a key pillar of Marxism-Trotskyism was to fully stabilize the country and peacefully seek allies, while Trotskyism called for a violent worldwide revolution, called the "Permanent Revolution". The Reforms of 1950 also 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. The failure to create a communist state in Japan convinced America to abandon its plan to actively lead revolutions in other countries, though it would support communist nations that formed. Instead, America turned to space and established colonies on the Moon and Mars in the following decades. Following the Sino-Korean War in 1971, America formed an alliance with Russia and China in their fight against Korea and Japan, ending the Russo-American Cold War. Janet Kim passed the Reforms of 2015 in an attempt to stabilize its struggling economy. In present times, America has renounced its right to declare war, and its 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.

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. Private business owners, workers' union members, and previous council members comprise most of political candidates. The decisions of each republic can be overridden by the federal government, if it is approved by the executive branch. Each Workers' Council democratically elects 3 members to be representatives of their republic to the legislature of America. Unlike the United States, republics can legally succeed from the country. However, this is not intended, as the republics expected to be reliant on the federal government for resources, such as money, water, food, fuel, and military support. The only republics which provide more resources to the federal government than the federal government returns to them are the People's Republic of California, Texan Socialist Republic, Minnesotan People's Democratic Republic, United Republic of Illinois, and the Wisconsin Democratic Federative Socialist Republic. All other republics are not self-reliant, and require resources from the federal government to remain stable.

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. The American Workers' Party is the sole official party of America, though it is incredibly loose, large, and decentralized.

Economy
America possess a socialist 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 1940s and 1950s, 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 1960s and 1970s, however, the economy began to stagnate, as most American products had little value. Through the 1980s and 1990s, the economy began to gradually decline as many countries would refuse to trade with America. Through the 2000s and early 2010s, the economy began to struggle as most countries protested America by refusing to trade with it. To combat this, Janet Kim passed the Reforms of 2015, reforming America's economy to a mixed economy, with the intention of creating a post-capitalist economy in America. 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, which decreases as the population grows. Businesses and enterprises can be both privately and publicly owned, but are not state-owned. Privately-owned companies are created, owned, and in control of individual working class citizens. Publicly-owned companies are created by the state, but are owned by the general public, and in control of a "workers' union"; a council of democratically elected company members all of which are workers. All companies, regardless of its owners and controllers, 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 homes for free and food stamps for their labor. Once citizens have worked for the amount of the state requires, food, water, and other resources are given to citizens for free. 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 most countries reopening trade relations with America.