After playing another round of this game today, I felt like manifesto was the thing I wanted more out of. When I play, I tend to assess what crises or “red bubbles” are on screen and make a point of getting rid of them. I would like to be able to make this a manifesto promise. Additionally, as I promised to increase equality, it occurred to me that it would be good to be able to promise a green bubble as well, such as promise to create an egalitarian society, rather than a 50% boost to equality.
The other thing that I think manifesto could really play into is promising controversial policy. In this case I was playing as Australia, and looking for potential revenue. I wanted to implement an inheritance tax, but couldn’t get my political capital past 42, despite winning 100% of the vote. I would very much like to be able to promise a specific policy as part of my manifesto, and then have some ability to sink political capital into in incrementally to hopefully eventually get it done.
This could create a game within the game, where a particular controversial policy that I don’t really have the support to do soaks up all the political oxygen while I relentlessly promise that I will “get it done!”. I’m sure we can’t think of anything in real world politics that looked like this.