The Federal Republic of Biot-Savart is a massive, cultured nation, ruled by President Belle Ampere with a fair hand, and notable for its national health service, irreverence towards religion, and devotion to social welfare. The compassionate, democratic population of 4.733 billion Savartines are free to do what they want with their own bodies, and vote for whomever they like in elections; if they go into business, however, they are regulated to within an inch of their lives.

The enormous, liberal, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Coulomb. The average income tax rate is 93.9%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Biot-Savartian economy, worth 670 trillion lire a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is highly specialized, is led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Tourism and Book Publishing. Average income is an impressive 141,762 lire, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Criminals always seem to be forewarned of police raids, guide dogs for the blind have been seen using government websites, intellectual snobbery has the cognoscenti sneering at anyone who doesn't have an opinion on the semiological drift of Umberto Eco's works, and the nation is currently revamping its entire education system. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown. Biot-Savart's national animal is the hedgehog, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Biot-Savart is ranked 2,459^th in the world and 55^th in the Pacific for Nicest Citizens, with 66.7 average smiles per day.