New Colorado Prefecture

New Colorado Prefecture (abbreviated as NC, colloquially known as New Colo) is a prefecture in eastern Enderron. It is a peninsular prefecture, only being bordered by Sylvania Prefecture to the north, though it is connected to Tojima Prefecture to the east by the Tojorado Tunnel and Skygate Bridge. Its capital city is Fairfield, while its largest city is Karburgh.

The area now known as New Colorado was originally known as Nishihantō (西半島, lit. "western peninsula"), and its territory was formed in 1712 after the mainland portion of Tojima Territory was transferred to Spanish colonists, becoming part of the Sierra Leased Territory. It became South Sierra County and entered the Enderronian union in 1797, the seventh jurisdiction to do so. It renamed itself to "New Colorado", after the US state of Colorado, in 1885.

Today, New Colorado's culture is a mix between British, Spanish and Japanese influences. The prefecture retains a significant Japanese Enderronian minority, and its official languages are English and Japanese. It is known for its dry climate, festivals and natural landscapes. Its population of 901,532 (ranked 13th in the country) is concentrated on the eastern and southeastern coast. The prefecture is highly rural outside of the cities of Karburgh and Fairfield, together home to two-thirds of New Coloradans, and its interior is largely uninhabited.

Much of New Colorado's interior is mostly mountainous and forested, making much of its area useless for large scale agriculture. New Colorado's economy is thus dominated by the mining, transport and technology sectors. It forms a vital land transport link between Tojima and the rest of the country. New Colorado is considered to be one of Enderron's poorer prefectures, and is frequently ranked low among prefectures in measures of economic growth, median household income, health, education and development. It has the lowest per capita GDP of any Enderronian prefecture.

History
TBA

Government
New Colorado has a semi-presidential political system, with the Governor of New Colorado Prefecture (currently Shaneka Bhattarai of the Social Democratic Party of Enderron) as the head of state, and the Premier of New Colorado Prefecture (currently Natalie Takayama of the Social Democratic Party of Enderron) as the head of government. Its unicameral parliament consists of the 35-member New Colorado Prefectural Assembly, with elections held every four years, using full preferential voting.

Federal representation
New Colorado elects 4 Members of Parliament to the Enderronian Parliament.

Political culture
New Colorado is known to be a stronghold for the centre-left Social Democratic Party, largely due to its economy based on mining and transport, both highly unionised working-class industries. The New Colorado Social Democratic Party is dominant to the extent that New Colorado is often described as having a dominant-party system or even a de facto one-party system. The SDP currently has a large majority in the New Colorado Prefectural Assembly, holding 23 of the 35 seats (65.7% of the total seats). The party has governed the prefecture continuously since 1988, and for all but two terms since 1964. The party also currently controls the office of governor, having done so continuously since 1996 and for all but one term since 1968, as well as all four New Colorado seats in the federal parliament. All of New Colorado's federal electorates have been represented by Social Democrat MPs continuously since 1994.

New Colorado has only experienced three changes of government since it became self-governing in 1946; from the United Party to the Social Democrats in 1964, back to United in 1980, and then back again to the Social Democrats in 1988. The present Social Democratic government, currently in its ninth consecutive term of government, is the longest-existing continuous prefectural government in Enderronian history.

Demographics
New Colorado's population as of October 2018 is 901,532, making it the thirteenth-most populous prefecture in Enderron.