Stucco is not the default even here in NorCal where climate is as good as it gets... I don't think it's so much to do with "republic" but more with the fact that any given county permit office seems to be allowed to do its own thing. Evidence to that is even neighboring counties in my state have wildly different standards. Wrt to stucco though I think the technology is fairly standard and it's just the level of workmanship of contractors is so low that you might as well pay $$$ for relatively idiot proof product
The building code is legislated and enforced by the local elected governments, so, yes.
The classic Western stucco gig is to put down two layers of building paper over the cladding, styrofoam, chicken wire, a cementitious brown coat and one or more cementitious skim coats. This is really inadequate for anywhere with snow freeze/thaw cycles or enough rain and high humidity, but does fine in climates like central and southern CA, AZ, NV elevation dependent. You can improve this slightly by specifying different foam and skim product but to really deal with climate you are getting into manufacturer's product line, and it gets both technical and labor intensive where you are looking at an EIFS with proper moisture management.
