The Res Publica Romana of Desmosthenes and Burke is a gargantuan, cultured nation, ruled by Gaius Lucanus Aurelius with a fair hand, and remarkable for its barren, inhospitable landscape, keen interest in outer space, and compulsory military service. The hard-nosed, hard-working, democratic population of 14.285 billion Burkeans are effectively ruled by a group of massive corporations, who run for political office and provide their well-off citizens with world-class goods and services. Their poorer citizens, however, are mostly starving to death while being urged to go out and get real jobs. The populace has reasonably extensive civil rights, although these are mostly aimed at allowing them to buy whatever they like.

The relatively small, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Healthcare, Defense, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Lutetia. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 24.5%.

The all-consuming Burkean economy, worth a remarkable 1,764 trillion Denarii a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Arms Manufacturing, Retail, and Tourism. Average income is an impressive 123,502 Denarii, but there is a significant disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 399,146 per year while the poor average 28,878, a ratio of 13.8 to 1.

Travellers are often forcibly evicted by torch-bearing mobs, unwary hikers climbing the bluffs of Mount Lutetia make great practice for foreign snipers, people believe that if you teach a man to fish he won't buy fish from you any more, and anti-government web sites are springing up. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Desmosthenes and Burke's national animal is the Grey Wolf, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, and its national religion is Religio Romanum.

Desmosthenes and Burke is ranked 208,100^th in the world and 2,306^th in the West Pacific for Most Corrupt Governments, with 1.08 kickbacks per hour.