Policy Suggestion: Direct Democracy

[The Blackcat Isles]

I hope I am submitting this in the correct forum, but while I was having a look at all the possible policies one can get in this game, I noticed there wasn't one that enabled your nation to have direct democracy. So basically, the policy would mean that the citizens rule through daily referendums on various topics, up until the point that a parliament isn't even necessary because the people fulfill the role of the parliament through referendums and such. Basically it would be the radical opposite of autocracy, I believe.

Do others agree, should there be a policy like this ingame?

[Marxist Germany]

Policies were initially created for backstage purposes only, in order to create more consistent narratives where player decisions later give access to or lock out other issues. They later became player-visible, but were never intended for this purpose, so they don't always turn on and off when you might expect.

New policies are added by the editing team when the issues demand it, not on a basis of a decision's notability in a nation's fiction. For example, we track the fine detail of whether a nation has dinosaurs AND whether a nation has a dinosaur theme park, because there are issues where the distinction is important. Likewise there's a code to track if players chose to personally go to ground zero in the first issue of The Enemy Within chain, as that affects some future narratives.

On the other hand, we don't track whether a minimum wage has been implemented or not, because no issue options need to check against this information. The presence or absence of a minimum wage is a much more notable feature of a nation than the things just mentioned, but notability is not the criterion by which we create policies.

For a policy to be created, it needs to have an Issue that lets you choose that policy direction. For us to code it as a tracked policy, it needs to have places elsewhere in the narrative that want to reference and track that. Also, of course, adding a new policy takes a while for each policy, as the adding editor then needs to reread all 1000+ issues to spot places where the new policy would affect existing narratives, and edit accordingly.

So basically, there is absolutely no point to players suggesting policies in the fora. The game isn't built in a way where suggestions of that sort will be implemented, ever.

If you want to see a particular policy in the game, the thing to do is to write a good quality issue which depends upon a past decision to affect how it is depicted. That's the only approach that will make a change, so come over to Got Issues, and get drafting!

[Trotterdam]

Whether or not your nation makes regular use of referendums actually is a policy the game already tracks, as evidenced by the existence of a followup issue (#253) that is specifically aimed at nations that do this. It just isn't currently shown on the policy page. So adding it to the policy page is certainly a thing that could be done.

[The Blackcat Isles]

Policies were initially created for backstage purposes only, in order to create more consistent narratives where player decisions later give access to or lock out other issues. They later became player-visible, but were never intended for this purpose, so they don't always turn on and off when you might expect.

New policies are added by the editing team when the issues demand it, not on a basis of a decision's notability in a nation's fiction. For example, we track the fine detail of whether a nation has dinosaurs AND whether a nation has a dinosaur theme park, because there are issues where the distinction is important. Likewise there's a code to track if players chose to personally go to ground zero in the first issue of The Enemy Within chain, as that affects some future narratives.

On the other hand, we don't track whether a minimum wage has been implemented or not, because no issue options need to check against this information. The presence or absence of a minimum wage is a much more notable feature of a nation than the things just mentioned, but notability is not the criterion by which we create policies.

For a policy to be created, it needs to have an Issue that lets you choose that policy direction. For us to code it as a tracked policy, it needs to have places elsewhere in the narrative that want to reference and track that. Also, of course, adding a new policy takes a while for each policy, as the adding editor then needs to reread all 1000+ issues to spot places where the new policy would affect existing narratives, and edit accordingly.

So basically, there is absolutely no point to players suggesting policies in the fora. The game isn't built in a way where suggestions of that sort will be implemented, ever.

If you want to see a particular policy in the game, the thing to do is to write a good quality issue which depends upon a past decision to affect how it is depicted. That's the only approach that will make a change, so come over to Got Issues, and get drafting!

My apologies for not having been aware of this particular post, had I been then I would not have made this thread. Thank you for kindly pointing this out to me!

[Marxist Germany]

Since trotterdam said it already exists, this suggestion is fine.

[Aclion]

Not sure mandatory referendums are quite the same as direct democracy

[Trotterdam]

Not sure mandatory referendums are quite the same as direct democracy

No, they're not the same thing, but they're probably the closest to direct democracy that is even remotely practical in a nation larger than a city-state.

[Daarwyrth]

Not sure mandatory referendums are quite the same as direct democracy

No, they're not the same thing, but they're probably the closest to direct democracy that is even remotely practical in a nation larger than a city-state.

Unless you're super high-tech and have like a special app or website where citizens can vote daily on matters of state and safely cast their vote from the comfort of home for example. I think Switzerland practices something along those lines?

[Aclion]

Not sure mandatory referendums are quite the same as direct democracy

No, they're not the same thing, but they're probably the closest to direct democracy that is even remotely practical in a nation larger than a city-state.

True, the only I see is the policies related to the court might contradict that, I know nations can abolish the court but I don't know if there's a policy tracking how justice works in nations that have done that. In a direct democracy I'd expect a person to be ideally tried by a jury selected lottery or by a referendum like in Athenian democracy.

[Trotterdam]

True, the only I see is the policies related to the court might contradict that, I know nations can abolish the court but I don't know if there's a policy tracking how justice works in nations that have done that. In a direct democracy I'd expect a person to be ideally tried by a jury selected lottery or by a referendum like in Athenian democracy.

The same issue I linked before, #253, allows you to implement that as option 2, although unlike referenda themselves I do not believe this is currently a tracked flag.

[The Blackcat Isles]

So, after having raised this in Got Issues as Marxist Germany suggested, I am referred back to the Technical forums

I would like to point to Issue #163, which is the issue that installs mandatory referendums in one's nation. I would argue that option 1 could have the effect that a Mandatory Referendum or Direct Democracy policy is installed, which has been confirmed to be already tracked as a result of issue #163. Of course, it's only a suggestion so the game's Admin(s) are free to ignore it, but it would be nice to have this as a visible policy. But of course, as was pointed out to me in my thread in Got Issues, policies are only added when they are necessary, not when they are wanted, so this is just a small suggestion from an enthusiastic player