Democracy 2

Democracy 2 advertises itself as a very complicated political game that can be used to teach in a classroom setting. However, it is a very basic game that only really has the capacity to explain very simple concepts. It’s a charming (but pricey) little puzzle game, and time waster, but that is it. The gameplay of Democracy 2 is simply using the state to easily transform society within a few turns and spamming a bunch of policies that make people happy with really no downside. Are you annoyed with religious conservatives hurting your GDP with anti-science polices, inflaming crime with their bigotry, and demanding censorship that annoys liberals+Socialists? Just spend a little bit of political capital on evolution in schools, stem cell research, prostitution, and a few other “immoral” policies. Within a single term in office the religious conservatives will all disappear and become liberals who are happy with your new policies. Drinkers and smokers should be similarly targeted as they raise healthcare costs and the taxes you get from destroying them are useful. Do you have a healthcare crisis and a struggling GDP? Put a little bit more money into state-hospitals and then pass a bunch of small business incentives that raise the GDP without angering anybody or costing any real money. Use that money to fund education initiatives and by your next term in office you should have an advanced economy with infinite money to spend on social programs to bribe voters with. This can be done as both the United States and the war-torn debt-ridden state of Malaganga. Democracy 2 borders on being propaganda for Third Way (Blairism) and Social Democracy. The game demands that corporate taxes be kept extremely low to prevent rampant tax evasion, and most regulations barely affect the GDP. It is made very clear from the start that growing your GDP is infinitely more important than actually extracting a higher percentage of wealth from it. Meanwhile, pretty much every social policy is extremely cheap despite these costs making up the majority of national budgets in real life. Surpluses can be created from thin air through new policies that create start-ups and resolving a new crisis like an obesity epidemic can be resolved in a few turns by just instituting a cheap school lunch program. The game clearly pushes the player to play in one direction, and it is obvious. Social Democracy is a fine idea, but it should be represented fairly. Welfare states are extremely expensive for the everyday citizens who live under them, and the best ones usually only exist because of centuries of cultural developments that resulted in a high-trust society and a lucky oil reservoir discovery. The simplification of politics done by this game does nobody any favors and may even make students think even less of poorer developing countries. This game is enjoyable, but it is not a great educational game as advertised. Its mechanics are very shallow, and it does not do a good job at representing politics beyond highlighting the very basic idea that many different issues are interconnected. However, for teaching that it may be better to just use a quick video about how poverty can lead to crime and worse healthcare outcomes. Expecting any game to accurately represent politics is naïve, but Democracy 2 claims to do so as its main selling point and so should be judged on that claim. Unfortunately, Democracy is more than just the government fixing everything.