Government of New Shetland

The federal government of New Shetland is the federal government of the constitutional democracy of thirty states that form the United States of New Shetland and the Ascension Islands. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and their various powers are delineated in the New Shetland Constitution; the powers are specified in greater detail in laws enacted by the Senate.

Legislature
New Shetland is a federal state with a centrally elected government that tries to leave as much of its tasks to the 30 states that togehter form the federation. The creation of federal legislature is a task of the federal government. On paper, all states are autonomous, but in practice many are influenced by federal decisions.

The federal government consists of a Senate and a Council of Ministers. Elections are held every three years. The largest party has the right to choose the president, but has to form a majority coalition first. If they fail to do so, the largest party of the other coalition has the right to choose the president.

Politics
The federal political climate is very polarized and there are roughly two blocks of parties, a liberal-socialist democrats coalition and a conservative coalition. The Liberal Democratic Party and the New Shetland Socialists usually form the first coalition together with either the Green Party or the Workers Party. The conservative block consists of the Conservative Party of New Shetland and the Christian Values Coalition, sometimes backed up by the Independent Party and the Native Council.

Other, non-coalition parties sometimes elected to Senate are the Marxist Front, the New Liberal Party and the Pacifist Party.