Deseret

The Deseret (Serran: ) is a that is one of the three  parts of the Kingdom of Sierra (the others being Hawaii and Sierra). It shares a border with Sierra to the west and south, Columbia and the to the north, and Brazoria to the east. The Deseret has a population of nearly 3 million, 80% of whom live in the region of the around the capital, Salt Lake City.

Featuring a  government,  exerts and wields tremendous power in the Deseret, with its organization and leadership incorporated into the framework of the Deseretian government. The model of government is directly inspired from the system church leader attempted to implement during the 1850s. When the Deseret was a territory of Sierra, it unilaterally during the Sierran Civil War. Following the war, the Deseret was granted substantial although its government was officially  and lacked the religious elements the modern government has today. The modern government and status of the Deseret as a constituent country of the Kingdom was established through the Charter for the Kingdom of Sierra in 1950 when it, along with Hawaii and Sierra were reorganized into co-equal parts of the Kingdom, sharing a unified national government, legislature, and monarch.

Over 60% of the Deseret's citizens are, most of whom are descendants of early Mormon settlers in the region who came from the. The Canaanites, a non-Christian with similar background and development, forms the next largest group in the Deseret, accounting for 20% of the population. Historically, the Mormons and Canaanites held a bitter rivalry, fighting for control over the Deseret and other portions of North America. The most violent of these conflicts occurred during the Canaanite-Mormon War, a war that happened simultaneously with the Sierran Civil War. Although tensions have eased over the decades since then, Canaanites remain largely underrepresented in the Mormon-dominated government, and their status remains a controversial and contentious issue for the Deseret. Both groups have great influence on the country's culture and daily life, with the Canaanites' Serran language one of the country's official languages (the other being English).

Although the Deseret is a part of the Kingdom, its political and social history remains distinctively separate from Sierra. In addition, it retains its own legal system which is a combination of - and law applied directly from the, the , and the other. It has its own, the unicameral Council of Fifty, whose members are elected from one of the 50 counties, areas of which are organized by the Church, not the state (which are only administratively binding to the state and have no purpose within the Church administrative organization). Although the is established by the Deseret, the official religion in the Deseret is Mormonism, with the Church of the Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the state church. Although while in theory, the President of the Deseret can be a non-Mormon (as there is no law expressively prohibiting this), the President is also, by constitutional stipulation, the President of the Church, who is selected by the. Since the Deseret's incorporation, all of its presidents have been Mormon and members of the church leadership.

Etymology
The name "Deseret" is a term derived from the, one of the holy books of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other Latter Day Saint movements. According to the book, "deseret" meant in the language of the, one of the four groups whom Mormons believed settled in ancient America. When the Mormons settled the Deseret, then known as unorganized territory, church leader and territory governor recommended using the name as a symbol of industry. Encouraging church members to be productive and self-sufficient as honeybees are, the name was formalized when Parliament approved the Mormons' petition for local organized government.

Pre-Colombian era
The earliest indication of habitation has been dated about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. The original inhabitants of the region were Paleolithic Indians who lived in the 's ancient swamplands. By 8000 BC, these peoples were supplanted by the Desert Archaic people who lived in caves near the. As the lake grew and access to food receded, the population declined, possibly leaving the area uninhabited for about 1,000 years before the arrival of the (Anasazi) in 100 AD and the  people in 600 to 1300 AD who lived in villages. Both tribes were members of the Ute-Aztec Native American group.

Government and politics


The Deseret has the political framework of a    with a, in which the government is parallely tied to the leadership and organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while also being under the supreme jurisdiction of the Kingdom of Sierra.

The President, the country's, must also constitutionally be the. Since the President of the Church is selected by the, the Church alone decides who leads the state, as opposed to the state selecting who leads the church. Within the Church, the President serves their term for life, and upon their death or resignation, are succeeded by the most senior member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (usually the President of the Quorum), which is roughly the equivalent of a secular. The President himself forms a part of the three-member which comprises of the President and his advisers: the First Counselor and the Second Counselor. Under special circumstances, there may be additional counselors within the First Presidency. These counselors must be from the Quorum of Twelve although there have been exceptions.

In order to allow the leadership of the Church to focus on administering and ministering to the Church, the Standing Executive Committee (SEC), a 12-member board of directors, appointed by the President, each of whom are responsible for a particular executive department. Together, the Standing Executive Committee serves as the President's advisers on the affairs of the state, and assist in managing the government. Nonetheless, the Standing Executive Committee is legally subservient to the Quorum, and traditionally is set up where each board member shadows a member of the Quorum. Any decisions made by the Committee can be overturned by the Quorum and members may be removed from the Committee at any given time, at the pleasure of the President. Consequently, members may serve without terms, and in some instances, have served for life, even outliving their appointee.

The is the Monarch of the Kingdom, whose primary residency is outside the Deseret, in Porciúncula, Sierra. Although none of the Monarchs have ever been Mormon, the Deseret nonetheless proclaims and accepts the royal title of Righteous King/Queen (Sovereign) of the Deseret, asserting that the Monarch has been blessed by God and suited to rule in their capacity as both a secular and spiritual figure. Generally, the Monarch abstains from interfering with the spiritual matters of the state, and allows the President to assume the role of religious leadership. The official residence of the Royal Family in the Deseret is the Marmalade Manor, which the Monarch and other members of the Household stays during their annual visit to the Deseret around March or April.

The national legislature of the Deseret is the Council of Fifty, a body with fifty members, each elected from one of the fifty counties of the Deseret. Elections are held every four years and are elected on a. The Council is responsible for creating legislation and appropriating funds for the government.

Role of the Church
Pursuant to the Deseret's commitment with the created by  founder and prophet, the Church is integrated into the political structure of the Deseret. Although Smith did not appear to support a unified church and state, church leaders have insisted that although the Deseret government is indeed heavily dependent on the Church, it is secular. The exclusion of non-Mormons from the majority of the Deseret's posts are in-line with the belief that the government must be run by holy and righteous individuals ordained by God. The ultimate purpose and goal of the Church's role in the theodemocracy is to promote the creation of, in anticipation of the.

Many political and civil positions can only be filled by members of the Church, with the President a major example. In order to be President of the Deseret, the individual must also be, who in turn, can only be elected by the. In addition, many executive positions at the district-level often require that leaders be members of the Church, as all districts correspond directly with ecclesiastical districts. Despite the system heavily favoring Mormon citizens, there has been various occasions a non-Mormon citizen has been elected into and served in office, although in all such cases, these were done at the local-level. In any post requiring membership in the LDS Church, should the individual convert to another faith or become by the Church, they immediately lose political legitimacy and are removed from the post.

The inexplicably large and ingrained role of the Church in the Deseret government is controversial and has often been criticized in the contemporary era. Contrary to popular belief, while the system is clearly theocratic and would appear to violate the Sierran doctrine of, this provision is only effective in Sierra by which the Constitution fully applies. The Deseret, as a constituent, but separate country within the Kingdom, is protected under the Charter (which applies to all countries) which deliberately lacks anything regarding church and state, and is permitted by the same document to create its own constitution and laws regarding government structure. Although the Constitution of the Deseret upholds and protects the freedom of religion, it does not provide for a doctrine on the separation of church and state. Meanwhile, several statutes, collectively known as the Lehite Code, are responsible for the legal prohibition against non-Mormon officeholders in most posts, and integration of the Church in the government. In the landmark 1999 Supreme Court Cunningham v. Welch case, the Court ruled that although the Deseret's laws on depriving non-Mormons of political rights were inherently "undemocratic", the laws did not wholly compromise the government's democratic nature (which is a requirement of all govenrments within the Kingdom) as the laws themselves were contrived through democratic means, and were passed in pursuant to the democratic passage, and the laws did not violate any provisions within the Charter (which, barring CAS law, is the only law in the Kingdom that must be applied to all countries in the Kingdom), and operates in line with government self-rule. As a result of these conclusions, the Court also found itself lacking any jurisdiction on laws endemic to the Deseret, and could not act upon the statutes, leaving the matter to be settled within the Deseret.