These words bring a tear to my eye...

[Artifex]

Sir, we are in a state of Anarchy. It's touch and go. We should have the government back under control in about 8 turns.

I'm I the unluckiest guy in the world? Even when I have small empires..I always get stuck with the maximum anarchy period.

[Incan_Warrior]

I think there should be a set number of turns when changing governments, and they should be based on logic. This would make for better strategy. When changing governments, the quality of life change should be taken into account. For instance, Despotism to anything should only be a turn or two - I mean, are the people really going to have that big of a problem going from slaves to paid labor? Now, if you are going from Democracy to say, Communism, perhaps there should be a large number of turns between. Git wut I'm sayin?

[SpencerH]

Reduce the length of time by making your people happy. Build churches, cathedrals, make entertainers, trade for luxuries, etc

[Jaybe]

How IS the anarchy term determined? I "know" that your first switch (out of despotism) is 1 turn, but how about all the other (non-religious) transitions?

[Inverse Icarus]

Originally posted by Jaybe
How IS the anarchy term determined? I "know" that your first switch (out of despotism) is 1 turn, but how about all the other (non-religious) transitions?

im playing as china and my first switch took 8 turns...

[Coracle]

I think anytime your capital is captured by an enemy military force you should go into anarch for awhile.

[Tuberski]

At least four turns....

[Theseus]

I'm with Jaybe... don;t think I've ever seen an expose on the subject.

Does a happy civ get out of anarchy faster? What are the factors? Religious and happiness buildings? Luxuries? What part does WW play? Civ traits other than religious? Garrisoning? Resistors? Is there any difference depending on what government you're leaving?

Huge topic.

[Thrawn05]

Originally posted by Theseus
Is there any difference depending on what government you're leaving?

From I've seen, that is a factor. Once I went from Democ to Commy in about 5 turns. Raged my war then went back in about 6 turns. But for the next 12 turns most of my cities were rioting because of the "Cruel unforgivable treatment" I caused them to go under (no, these were not from captured cities, but my own).

[Jaybe]

Okay, in my latest game at work I am Shaka:
LARGE map, 2 civ slots were 'None' instead of 'Random'
9 cities (well, 8 of those are towns)
I have 3 glorious luxuries, and Xerxes was, at the time, giving me another for gpt
I have 1, maybe 2 citizens unhappy, overall
It is about 50 AD, and I am researching currency

Transition from Despot to Monarch took 1 turn.
BTW, this is with version 1.21g (Mac, no longer beta)

I currently believe that it's caused either by civ size or by happiness.

Here is an opportunity to start compiling a log of these, with whatever parameters you deem relevant. I know it's difficult when you are only doing it 1-3 times per game (religious civs are irrelevant, of course).

[Capt Dizle]

I seem to recall that Soren revealed that the average number of turns was six but that there was a random factor.

[Carver]

I saw a post saying it was mostly based on culture. (the more, the shorter)

[Ethelred]

There seem to be a number of factors including some randomization.

Religious civs of course always have one turn of Anarchy.

I think your general level of happiness may be involved. The number of cities also appears to be involved. Late game changes seem to take longer.

I know that four is not the minimum. I switched from Despot to The Republic in three turns in my latest game and in others as well. That may be the minimum for a non-religious civ.

[RedBird]

Originally posted by Ethelred
There seem to be a number of factors including some randomization.
[...]
I think your general level of happiness may be involved. The number of cities also appears to be involved. Late game changes seem to take longer.
[...]
I switched from Despot to The Republic in three turns in my latest game and in others as well.

The switch out of Despotism is faster, but I just did some testing (from Rep to Dem) with "Save Random Seed" off (ie reloading and reswitching would produce different results). I tried this about ten to fifteen times. I saw 4, 5, 6, and 7 turn periods. It seemed to be an equal distribution.

I think that happiness, number of cities, and era do NOT have any affect.
(at least based on what I saw).

[RedBird]

Originally posted by Incan_Warrior
I think there should be a set number of turns when changing governments, and they should be based on logic.

[Sarcasm = on]
That's right, revolutions always follow logic.
[sarcasem = off]

Seriously though, if you want a set number of turns just turn Save Random Seed off, and reload until you're happy with your result.

(yes, that would be known as cheating)