Mechanics - Better-Politics-Mod/Better-Politics-Mod-Vic-3 GitHub Wiki

Political Rigidity

"Politics is the art of the possible." -Otto von Bismarck, 1867

Political Rigidity is a new mechanic added to the government panel alongside vanilla legislative ability. While legislative ability is determined by the ideological coherence and clout of your governing coalition, rigidity represents the overall dynamism (or lack thereof) of the political forces in your country. The target level of rigidity is raised by more conservative and traditional laws, as well as by increasing the level of institutions such as the police, and is lowered with more democratic laws such as census and universal suffrage. The level of rigidity also lowers during elections and wars. Lower rigidity increases the attraction to ideological interest groups while raising it grants more attraction to institutional interest groups (see Interest Groups for more information about these). Rigidity is broken down into 3 zones for different effects on your government:

• Stagnant: rigidity above 66% will make your government stagnant, increasing law enactment time by 100% and dropping enactment chance by 20%
• Dynamic: rigidity between 66% and 33% wont have any negative debuffs, and is generally the zone you want to keep a government in for stability and ease of reform
• Unstable: rigidity below 33% will result in an unstable government which grants -20% enactment time and +4 universal pop strength, but also -20% construction efficiency, +50% radicalism from SOL decreases and -20% throughput

Political Rigidity must be kept in check depending on your political goals, and can also be influenced by events and law sways outside of the normal modifiers from laws. The rate at which rigidity increases or decreases to its target level is also influenced by some institutions and laws.

Law Enactment

"Congress is so strange. A man gets up to speak and says nothing. Nobody listens. And when he sits down, everybody disagrees." -Boris Marshalov, 1942

To pass a law is to use both the carrot and the stick to secure a passing vote. In the Better Politics Mod we have revamped the law enactment system in order to make it a more active that requires thought and compromise. Now, to pass a law, you must secure a majority of the clout in the legislature and the approval of your nation's ruler. When beginning the law enactment process a gui outlining support will appear at the top of the government screen (see above). While some particularly popular laws may have all the support required from the get go, others will require the use of Law Sways in order to bring interest groups and their votes over to your side. Enactment chance continues to determine the chances of moving on to the next stage in the lawmaking process, but only by securing the vote will the law pass in the voting stage.

You will acquire a number of law sways entering each stage, which you can spend on sways under each interest group. How much it will cost use a sway on an IG is determined by their clout, more clout making a sway cost more law sway points. Each sway will have different effects and push their overall law vote ahead different amounts. These trade offs can include things like temporary tax cuts, decreased ig approval, and more. (see below)

If you have successfully cobbled together a voting coalition the bill reaches your ruler's desk. What they do depends on a few factors, first is the rulers own ideology and IG. A ruler that strongly approves of the bill will always sign it into law. More reluctant rulers can still sign a bill into law so long as their law support is above 0. Meanwhile a ruler that strongly disapproves of the law on both counts may kill the law outright, or send the bill back to the legislature, giving more time to build support. The last point is important, as a bill that achieves over 66% of the vote cannot be vetoed. More ambivalent rulers can choose any of these options so long as the vote total isn't veto-proof.