Government Approval

Government approval measures how much of the population supports the current government. It is tracked per country as a percentage (0-100) and updates each turn. Low approval has real political consequences: it weakens the governing party's position and can embolden opposition action.

How approval is derived#

Government approval is computed from state metrics compared against national averages, not from the head of government's personal favorability. Every turn, the game evaluates each state's performance across 10 metric categories, compares each metric to the national average, and produces a state approval score. National approval is the population-weighted average of all state scores.

This means approval reflects the objective condition of the country: economy, healthcare, infrastructure, safety, environment, as experienced by the population, rather than the popularity of any individual politician.

Note: Presidential systems formally track approval as tied to the president's standing, while parliamentary-style and one-party systems track it as tied to the PM's standing. In practice, the live system always computes approval through the aggregate metric method described below, regardless of government type.

Metric categories#

Approval walks 10 stateMetrics category buckets (including population). Some cohort metrics in population are skipped as approval terms. The live metric engine has additional country-specific nodes beyond the sample table:

For each metric, the game knows whether higher values are good (e.g., GDP growth, life expectancy) or lower values are good (e.g., unemployment, crime rate). The direction is inverted for "lower is better" metrics before comparison.

The calculation#

Per-metric contribution#

For every metric where both the state value and national average are available:

pctDiff = (stateValue - nationalAverage) / nationalAverage
signedDiff = higherIsBetter ? pctDiff : -pctDiff
contribution = clamp(signedDiff * 15, -2, +2)

Each metric can contribute at most +/-2 points to the score. The scale factor of 15 means a metric must be roughly 13% above average to hit the +2 cap, or 13% below to hit -2.

State approval formula#

baseScore = 50 + (sum of all contributions / number of metrics evaluated) * 2.5
stateApproval = clamp(baseScore, 0, 100)

If a state has no metrics data, it defaults to 50%.

National approval#

nationalApproval = sum(stateApproval * statePopulation) / sum(statePopulation)

The national score is rounded to one decimal place and clamped to 0-100.

Named modifiers#

After the base metric score is computed, the system checks for named conditions (styled after Democracy 3) that add or subtract small bonuses when their thresholds are met. These stack: multiple active conditions sum their effects.

There are 82 defined modifiers, each with 1-3 metric conditions that must all be met. Examples:

The full set of 82 modifiers covers economic, healthcare, safety, environmental, governance, social, infrastructure, media, and demographic conditions. Effects range from -3 (severe crises) to +2 (exceptional performance), with most modifiers at +/-1.

Modifiers are evaluated against the same flat metrics map used for the base score, so they work on both individual states and pre-computed national averages.

Per-turn damping#

Approval doesn't jump straight to its freshly-computed target each turn. Each state's stored rating is stepped toward the target by at most 2 points per turn, so even a modifier swing that would otherwise move approval by double digits plays out gradually over several turns rather than landing all at once.

National modifiers#

After the population-weighted state score is assembled, a set of national modifiers is applied in one pass, and the approval page lists every one of them beside the rating so the number always has a reason attached. The positive ones share a single ceiling on how much they can lift approval between them.

A country without a functioning cabinet is heavily penalised. The acting-appointment penalty stacks per member, so a cabinet with 5 acting members loses an additional 2.5 points.

War and approval#

A nation at war carries the war on its rating, in three separate lines, each of which arrives and departs a couple of points per turn rather than landing at once:

• War effort judges the front against what the war was expected to do, not simply against who holds ground. A defence that gives up nothing is a political success, an invasion that stalls is a political failure, and a government putting down a rebellion is credited for winning rather than penalised for fighting at home. On a proxy front, where neither side is expected to gain, any movement counts for whoever made it.
• War exhaustion is measured from the turn your own country entered, not the turn the war began. Declaring from peace rallies the public, and that support turns to cost after roughly a year of fighting and keeps deepening. Exhaustion is carried across a peace and heals about a point per in-game year, the same pace it accrues, so a country that ended its last war deep in exhaustion opens the next one already paying for it, and a country that never stops fighting gets no rally at all. A year of fighting takes a year of peace to forgive.
• Alliance contribution applies to a country pulled in by a mutual-defence treaty. Matching your co-belligerents is neutral, sending nothing costs approval, and carrying more than your share earns it. Nobody is penalised in the first few turns, before forces could plausibly have arrived.

A war going well and a tired public are opposite facts a government answers in opposite ways, which is why the block is shown per line rather than netted. A zero reading is a real reading and renders as one. When a war ends, the lines ease back out over several turns and say so while they do. Every country actually fighting is snapshotted, playable or not, so a belligerent's war rating is never scored nowhere.

What is tracked#

Each country has one approval record with:

• Approval rating: 0-100, percentage of population approving
• Disapproval rating: 0-100, percentage disapproving (computed as 100 - approval)
• Net approval: approval minus disapproval (can be negative)
• Source: always the aggregate metric method plus the national modifiers above, never personal favorability
• Active modifiers: the list of national effects folded into the stored rating, so the chips on the page cannot disagree with the number beside them
• Carried war exhaustion: persists between wars
• History: last 20 turns of approval/net values for charting (capped at 20 entries)

The headline figure on the approval page, the history chart, the Executive page and the elections all read this one stored number.

Approval and disapproval sum to exactly 100: there is no "undecided" category in this system.

Crises and approval#

Active crises can apply direct approval effects each turn, adding or subtracting from the national approval rating of all affected countries. These are flat or tick-based effects applied during turn processing, after corporations and before history snapshots. A major crisis can swing approval by several points per turn independently of the metric-based calculation.

Snap elections#

The wiki previously claimed that low UK government approval triggers snap elections. This is incorrect. Snap elections in parliamentary countries (UK, JP, DE) are triggered by:

1. PM initiative: A sitting Prime Minister (or Chancellor in DE) voluntarily dissolves the lower chamber.
2. PM vacancy deadline: If no PM is appointed within 96 turns of the government entering "pending" status, the system auto-triggers a snap election.

There is no approval threshold for snap elections. The 96-turn vacancy clock is the automatic trigger. See Snap Elections for full mechanics.

For US and other fixed-term systems, low approval does not directly end a term, but it affects re-election prospects and can empower opposition members to pursue impeachment or no-confidence motions.

Reading the approval tracker#

From any country's main page or government page, the approval chart shows:

• Current approval and disapproval percentages
• Net approval trend over the last 20 turns
• Comparison to previous governments (historical line)

A net approval above +10 is generally considered safe political territory. Net approval below 0 (more disapproval than approval) is a warning sign.

Relationship to elections#

Government approval directly scales the vote pool in every election. Each state's government approval rating is converted to a decimal and applied as a strength multiplier:

• Presidential elections: (1 + (approval - 0.5) * 0.5) * officeStrength, a swing of up to +/-25% from the 50% baseline
• Legislative and other elections: (1 + (approval - 0.5) * 0.2) * officeStrength, a swing of up to +/-10%

On top of this direct scaling, approval is a useful leading indicator:

• Low approval reflects poor national conditions, which hurts the governing party's candidates through the direct multiplier and through primary resolution
• Low approval motivates opposition players to run stronger campaigns and pass no-confidence votes
• High approval gives the governing party a morale and recruitment advantage
• Crisis-driven approval swings can signal electoral volatility

Strategic management#

As head of government:

• Pass legislation that improves economic and social metrics: these feed directly into approval
• Monitor the 10 metric categories; weakness in any one drags the average
• Appoint a capable Central Bank Chair who keeps inflation near 2% and GDP growth positive
• Form a full cabinet promptly: the -7.5 no-cabinet penalty is severe
• Avoid acting appointments where Senate confirmation is available
• Treat a war as an approval decision: a fresh war rallies the public once, a long one wears it down, and exhaustion follows you into the next one

As opposition:

• Track metric trends: if inflation rises or unemployment spikes, approval will follow downward
• Vote against government bills that would improve key metrics
• In the UK: monitor the PM vacancy clock, not approval thresholds, for snap election opportunities

See also: National Metrics, Demographics, Central Banks, Snap Elections, Crisis Interaction