Issues Effects

[Kamsund]

I have been playing this game for some years now, but recently I'm getting mad at issues effects.

How are you supposed to answer the issues? How people can set goals for the nation when the issues have no reasonable relation between answer and effect?

This just happened with lot my issues recently, but I will give an example of the last issue:

Keep The Greenbelt Green, Say Protesters

A group of environmentalists are protesting against plans to expand urban and suburban developments into greenbelts, the designated countryside between settlements.

I chose this answer:

"I agree with my colleague here, but he doesn't go far enough," says, a city planner. "These protestors are standing in the path of progress. It slows the growth of our economy and harms my portfolio - er - the future of our nation, I mean. It's unpatriotic and we should increase police funding to deal with these troublemakers. Then we wouldn't have to worry about greenbelts or any other nonsense about keeping the 'environment' safe. Think about it for a moment!"

Effect:

Environmental protestors are being rounded up and taken away in sinister black vans as a massive land development campaign gets underway.

No Dissent

Public protests are illegal.

This is totally authoritarian, right? But I lost 37,4% of authoritarianism.

Doesn't make sense at all and it has happened with many issues.

[Leutria]

You want this thread: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=424650

[Kamsund]

You want this thread: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=424650

Thank you.

[Trotterdam]

This action limits political freedom (people aren't allowed to protest), but raises economic freedom (no pesky environmental protection laws). If people already weren't allowed to protest, but you did have environmental protections, you'd feel the latter effect more.

[Merconitonitopia]

What Trotterdam said. Your nation heavily regulates industry, and easing environmental regulations let off a lot of that pressure. While you are suppressing protesters, which is undeniably authoritarian, that is already routine in your nation, so that doesn't change an awful lot.
The end result is an overall less authoritarianism. Keep in mind, though, that issues effects will be a lot more dramatic with new nations.

[Trotterdam]

Keep in mind, though, that issues effects will be a lot more dramatic with new nations.

The "issues have more of an effect on newer nations" thing is kind of overstated, people need to stop repeating it as if it's holy gospel. It's true on average, but only indirectly, specifically because older nations mostly reconfirm existing choices, while newer nations start out without a lot of policies in place and so make more genuinely new choices with significant effects. Going back on your previous policy can actually have more of an effect on older nations, since they're overturning years of history rather than weeks.