Government ideas for late game

[lokifalling]

I've been wanting the game to go for another fifty years lately, just to get in a little bit more of trends we're seeing. Not as sci-fi as CTP, but a little bit more.

Along that line, I've been brainstorming some new government ideas for the late game:

Corporate Republic. Basically the same as CTP. Ennabled by corporation advance? Good at war, but not as good as Communism. Good at science, but not as good as democracy. Great at commerce, which would likely make up for the science lag.

I don't know what you would call it, but something along the lines of the EU. Less centralized than the republic. Good culture because of local autonomy. Not so good at war. Holds its own in science and commerce.

Communitarianism. For us peaceniks. Pronounced local autonomy. Okay in science and commerce. Bad in war. What Ralph Nader would play if he were a Civer.

[ThaddeusAlexander]

I like the Corporate Republic idea from CTP - maybe the Ecotopia would be cool too ... but maybe as a former Greenpeace zealot, its just inbred in me

Cheers!
~Alex

[Presidente]

i kind of liked the sci-fi in CTP2, those were really cool ideas, human cloning used to expand cities, colonization of seas, technocracy....really cool, maybe firaxis should think about something like that in a future patch

[Lumpkin]

I think an EU-style government is a really bad idea - the EU is just a bunch of half-united independent democracies. Its not possible to represent a supra-national government in Civilization. The actual constitution of the EU is just one of many forms of democracy.

The Corporate Republic is a good idea but I really don't like the name and very vague definition of what it is. I mean, capitalism in its present state is best served by democracy anyway - if corporations took over from the state that would mean an end to competition. A more specific vision would be the one used in the games Syndicate and Syndicate Wars - with one Syndicate (sinister corporation operating above the law) using violence and high-technology manipulation to pull all the shots. The entire population has chips implanted into them to fill their brains with delusions about the world being a happy, pretty place. These chips allow the use of "persuadatrons" to temporarily the person's autonomy. In the second game all the chips are linked up via a world-wide virtual web used to spew out propaganda and increase economic communication. An appropriate name could be something like "The Syndicate" or "Cybernetic Totalitarianism"

So I guess in Civ terms this would mean zero unhappiness, high science, high economics and easy wars. Hmmm, can't really think of any down-sides. I guess you could say that all that mind-control would have a negative effect on creativity and dynamism, thus decreasing economic growth. If government-specific units are possible that would have to be the cyborg agent.

Another possible future government could be the military democracy described in Robert A. Henlein's book (and in the film) "Starship Troopers" (Same as now except that citizenship (the vote) is acquired by two years of national service (typically involving shooting aliens on faraway planets)). The theory is that by giving special status in a democratic to the most aggressive and ambitious, civil collapse would thus be avoided. So I guess in civ terms they would have the same advantages as Democracy, but with far greater tolerance for war.

Being a bit of communitarian myself (though not a peacenik) I like the idea of this type of government but I don't see what advantages it would have in Civ terms.