History:

The Republic arose in an up to then rather small farming town, Shady Sands, which is now the capital of the Republic. Founded by the dwellers of Vault 15, the Vault with probably the most mixed, ethnic groups.

In 2161, when the Vault Dweller visited this town, he ended the danger that arose from a group of Raiders not too far from Shady Sands and eradicated a large, Rad Scorpion nest. By those actions Shady Sands received some breathing space and could develop further in peace.

Inspired by the example of the Vault Dweller and animated by the conviction, that without a doubt, everyone can live together with everyone else, on February the 3rd, 2196, the Republic was proclaimed in a much grown and stronger Shady Sands.

The first president, John Aradesh, had previously been the leader and later the democratically elected mayor of the town. He was elected without an opposing candidate or an opposing vote. After his death, his daughter, Tandi, was elected just as her father was. Tandi Aradesh pursued the dream of her father, to see the Republic grow. Across the trade routes opened by her father she began diplomatic correspondence with the large towns and cities south of Shady Sands. Junktown joined as a second city state in 2209.

The Hub followed only after the Boneyard had joined in 2211. The young Republic had their first trial by fire in the face of Raiders in 2204. A mercenary group that had pledged to eradicate slavery, the Rangers, helped in large part with the defense and the counter offensive and were made the NCR Rangers in the June of that same year – the official military of the Republic.

Governmental system and parliament:

The NCR is a federal republic, that gives the single city states, districts and smaller settlements in its territory a lot of local autonomy.

The New California Republic has – based on the example of the pre war USA – two chambers, the Senate and the Congress. Together those two chambers are called the Republican Parliament. The parliament building is officially called ‘John Aradesh House’, but is often just called ‘Parliament’ and is located in Shady Sands.
The Senate is constructed, so that each district and city state – and as a city state a town must have more than 20,000 inhabitants – sends one directly elected senator to Shady Sands. Since there are currently only four city states and five districts, there are 9 senators.

The congress on the other hand, gets 2 congressmen from each settlement in the Republic that has more than 1000 inhabitants, one congressman from settlements with 100 – 1000 inhabitants and of smaller settlements no congressmen. Those smaller settlements vote for so called district
congressmen whose maximum number is calculated in a complicated manner to insure a good representation for those smaller settlements.
At the moment, there are 41 congressmen sitting in congress, of which 8 are from the city states and 6 from the Squat and two more settlements with 1000 inhabitants. Another 16 come from towns with more than 100 but less than 1000 inhabitants.

The other 11 congressmen are district congressmen.

The government, senators and congressmen are directly elected for 5 years.

Since the NCR was founded in an unsafe, even dangerous time, John and Tandi Aradesh, the most important architects of the Republic, were always of the conviction, that the government, if it really should clean up the Wasteland, should be able to do so as well. The constitution of the New California Republic allows an extremely strong executive branch, that can hardly be stopped by political enemies with political tricks.

On the other hand, the constitution guarantees extensive civil and human rights and gives the congress the power of the purse as check and balance. Formal parties do not exist in the Republic, but usually, those in the know do know which senator and which congressman conforms to which line, or, as they would have said before the Great War: who is further left and who is further right.

Propaganda:

The Republic advertises for itself wherever they can. Especially New Reno seems to be targeted by Shady Sands, at least, one sees a lot of posters there with republican slogans like “Peace! Today!” or “For your country today! For you, tomorrow!”.

The “NCR magazine for political education”, that is highly subsidized by the government, but not distributed by them, counts as propaganda, since it’s published by the state. Republican traders often take care of the distribution free of charge.

Standards of living in the republic:

Of course there is a gap between poor people and rich people in the Republic, too, or geographical differences in the standard of living. But a few things can in general be said about the standard of living in the NCR.

Nowhere else are so many people living as well as in the NCR. 700,000 humans of which none suffer hunger, nearly all have a roof above their heads and a place to sleep.
The state – and also the city states – try their best to support unemployed people or those in need, even though that help is rather a help to self help – or rather bare bones – since even the NCR has a relatively small budget.
But, where else in the Wasteland does one get any kind of help?

Street system:

The NCR offers travelers the best roads of the Wasteland. Even if the street is just a gravel path – like, for example, the street between Shady Sands and the Squat – it is still a built up way between the towns and cities of the Republic.
Travel times are therefore dramatically shortened.
Furthermore the first test track of the planned railroad through the NCR has been finished and twice a day a nuclear powered train runs between the Hub and Junktown. And with the New California Train and Travel Company there is even some kind of Occident-Express already running.

City states, towns and settlements according to the census of 2240:

According to the census of 2240 there are 626,407 humans, mutants and ghouls living in the city states. Another 17,8961 live in the Squat. There are three smaller settlements with in between 10,000 and 1,001 inhabitants and 16 with less than 1,000 (but more than 100). And a lot of smaller settlements.
The exact numbers for the city states in an overview

Current political topics in the NCR:

Currently the NCR foreign policy revolves around these three topics, about which each senator, congressman and seemingly each village idiot has an opinion they have to share:

• Vault-City and what is to be done or not to be done with it
• New Reno and what is to be done or not to be done with it
  
• Redding and what is to be done or not to be done with it

of the Republican foreign policy and furthermore deals in slavery. The proposed solutions range from the simple, military solution to slowly, but carefully exerting political pressure, up to ‘leave the problem until it disappears’.

As for New Reno it mostly revolves around the large drug problem and organized crime in that city. Problems that always threaten to spill over onto the Republic. Here, too, the opinions ranger from military solutions to ignoring it.

Redding is a small, quaint mining town that digs for gold. Gold is also of interest for the NCR as a countervalue to the dollar. At the moment, the NCR is still arguing with New Reno and Vault-City about the indirect control over the citizens of Redding and with that the gold. Here, too, many say

that a military solution seems worthwhile. Others prefer taking things slower.

As for interior politics all revolves indirectly around one question: who will become the next President? Tandi would be reelected until the end of the century, but she is already more than 90 years old. This term, that ends in 2281, is without a doubt her last. Certainly the last one she can finish.

The senators and congressmen that wish to become her successor, try to make a name for themselves, especially in the tax policy, that many citizens of the Republic view as a more or less large burden Furthermore they enjoy arguing about whether or not the Republic should keep expanding or rather spend some decades fortifying their current borders and giving their current citizens the highest possible standard of living, but it looks more and more as if a large phase of expansion will begin after Tandi’s last term as President.