Democracy is the title of a new political strategy game by
Positech Games
Democracy starts with you as President (or Prime-Minister)
of a modern country. The country is a run as a simple democracy
where you need to get over 50% of the vote each election
in order to remain in power. The object of the game is to
stay in power as long as possible (there are no limits as
to how many terms you may be elected president).
"Games such as democracy are an important step forward in the evolution of
education" - Kristofer Poland, Instructor of Political Science, Ohio University
Democracy is a detailed simulation game that is 'turn based'
where each turn of the game represents 3 months of time.
Elections are held every 4 years. The game has a complex
internal model to represent the population of your country.
A large number of different 'voter groups' are modeled,
such as Motorists, Trade-Unionists, Unemployed people, Wealthy
people etc. The simulation allows people to be in several
groups at once, so for example, an unemployed poor motorist
will be influenced by the opinions of all 3 groups when
it comes to election day.
The player influences the voters and the country by putting
in place policies. Policies are things like "Free Health
Care" and can be modified using sliders to decide how
much money (and effort) is put into each policy. Different
voting groups will have very different (often conflicting)
views as to which policies are desirable.