Interesting ideas. My (inflation-adjusted) two cents:
I agree completely with (2) National Parks, and think it should also please Patriots and increase State Employees while annoying Capitalists. Also approve of a (3) Tax Fraud Investigators, to complement Welfare Fraud Investigators; currently, there’s no practical way to deal with tax evasion without them, which makes dealing with a debt crisis difficult. Also on board with (5) Sports Subsidies and (6) Antitrust Authorities, though I’d change it to “Antitrust Legislation,” and make it a discrete slider indicating how severe antitrust law is.
I’d say (1) Internet Access is probably included under Technology, which is why high technology results in internet crime, cyberwarfare, and high income from the Internet Tax. Internet Infrastructure Investment might be a good idea, it could increase technology without introducing inequality (the way Technology Colleges currently do). If Cliffski adds this, I’d recommend making the anti-socialist effects of Technology Colleges a lot more severe, and adding some notable downsides to Technology Grants (or, just make them a lot more expensive). It’s too easy to increase Technology already, this could exacerbate the problem.
Similarly, I think (7) Fishing Subsidies are basically rolled into Agriculture Subsidies. No need for a separate policy there.
Not a fan of (4) Oil Reserves. I mean, first of all it seems too complicated to model in the current simulation, but also I just don’t see it adding much. Oil just doesn’t have a noteworthy impact on the game anyway, in my experience.
(8) Terrorism stats and the additional intelligence services… I dunno, Terrorism is already modelled as a hidden value for a reason. And Democracy 3 is very heavily focused on domestic policy. I already think “Military Funding” is a useless policy, since there’s no purpose for the military in Democracy 3 except to avoid certain random events. If there’s a Democracy 3: Foreign Policy DLC that adds new systems whereby long-running wars can begin and require constant management, and foreign nations act against you in a more active way, then it’d justify expanding intelligence/defense policies.
The (9) supply/demand and inflation stats don’t seem particularly important to me. Over the time these games run for, you aren’t going to see big changes in the inflation rate, and supply/demand imbalances are already modelled (sketchily) by recessions and market meltdowns. More to the point, modelling stats for supply, demand, and inflation within Democracy’s very simplistic simulation seems impossible. There just isn’t enough data underlying the sim to represent that kind of stuff. And since the (10) discount rate is mainly a way of handling inflation and stabilizing bank crises (which don’t exist in Democracy 3), I don’t think it’s needed.