MPs, Multi-Party System and more

While I’m aware that this may be very difficult, time consuming and worthy of a new game, and although this has probably been thought about and raised before, I still think the one main restriction on Democracy should be pointed out: there is only a simple, direct election for two parties and a near all-powerful president (the political capital, while good, doesn’t really cover it all).

For a start, there are only two parties. Ok, I recognise that it would probably be a nightmare to code in new political parties, but one idea could be that pressure groups could form their own parties if sufficiently irritated by both parties.

Next, surely the opposition should have a manifesto? There should be things attracting people to the other party, rather than just dissatisfaction with your own.

The law-making process seems flawed as well. In Democracy 2, the President pretty much has uncontrolled power, apart from the small restriction of political capital, and is the only one that makes laws. Since in real life, laws are made by elected representatives (another thing missing) surely this should be represented somehow? Have groups of MPs, with sympathies like the Cabinet Ministers and certain factors influencing their view of the government, like the voter groups.

Lastly, the election system. To be honest, this is probably the least important point, yet still deserves consideration. Probably proportional representation with the MPs would be the best first step, yet other systems, such as First Past the Post and Two Rounds ought to be considered.

All this said, I should point out that I do really like this game, and it’s the best country management one out there - I just think it could be even better.

The thing about multiple parties is that if they don’t go into pacts together then you would have to make a deal with them in order to get elected. This opens up the whole can of worms that would mean a trading and diplomacy section where you propose certain policies in return for others. Now don’t get me wrong, I think this might work, in a similar way to the diplomacy in Galactic Civ 2 does, but its a lot more work that it would seem.
Coding extra parties in would be fairly easy, but the interface, AI and support cod for negotiation is huge. Plus voters would then need much more complex evaluation to decide who to vote for.
In the long term though, I would love to do this.

I can see this would be ridiculously hard to code and create, let alone in a balanced and enjoyable way, but I just thought I ought to set the ball rolling.

Keep up the good work!

firstly, good job on the game, i am genuinely impressed. 8)

the first problem we have is the complexity of adding in these kinds of big modifications. it would take a tremendos amount of code to do this and even more time to get it right. the problem with adding in more realistic types of features is that it can often take away from the enjoyment of the game.

leaving that aside, democracy means government by the people. most democratic governments use representative democracy, i.e. the citizens elect their representatives. this seems to be missing somewhat in the game as only the president/prime minister and their cabinet appear. there is no parliament or congress to scrutinise the executive.

one of the reasons (as i understand it) that the second game wasnt soposed to be realistic is beacuse that is is almost impossible to implement the intricasies of a number of real states (not to mention the hate mail if it was wrong). not only this, but it would need to take into account the effects of other supra of sub national bodies, that is bodies that go beyond the borders and powers of nation states (supranational e.g. European Union) and bodies that exist within another nation state (subnational e.g. the devolved assemblies/parliaments now in existance in the UK)

these systems are always in constant change, esspeicaly in europe where we have yet to see how far the union will go towards european integration and whether it will create a united states of europe.

another area would be the constitutional powers. in nations like the UK this is less of a problem, because it can be changed by act of parliament. but in nations like the USA there are set procedures that must be followed.

this is just a thought. i know that it is POSSIBLE to implement most, if not all, of this into a codified game, but it will take a lot of time and effort to do this. im not sure if people are willing to use that much time. would be a good game though.

first of all, Amulil is a socialist who wants to vote labour socialist… ooow harsh. lolz :laughing:

but seriously, i agree with the previous point. we need to take into account differant electoral systems, as well as assemblies. as representative democracy is the most common form of government, perhaps having partys elected into a national assembly of equivelant, and having the leader elected seperatly like they do in america.

so many things can be added. like i think having more then just the ruling party and the opposition. havign a multiparty system adds a whole new level of depth. minority and coalition governments. but again, this would lead to losing control of policies. which also leads me to the point of policy making. it seems like the elected leader has almost complete control of the government. perhapos havign ministers deal with department administration and having them recomend policies to you would be a good thing.

yawn…right, im gonna have to get somethign to eat now. all that thinkings nackerd me out.

“vote blue, go green.”