I'm making a Grand Strategy game in which I'd like to create a good and sensible model for politics.
So far, I've been reading wikipedia. I've noted that the series of articles about Government (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government) show it broken down into Power Structure and Power Source.
This feels to me like a good idea, that you can pick from the structure and then the source. I wouldn't allow players to change it whenever, and I think they would have to invest resources into actually pushing for change.
So like, you can start pushing your peoples towards an "Empire" and you're currently a Federation. This would take less effort than if you were a Unitary State. If you're currently an Absolute Monarchy, this would be easier than if you were a democratically elected government because you have more direct control over the government.
There would be other effects, like a Theocracy having an easier time with religion. Military Junta having a bigger military budget prior to the people complaining.
Does this sound like a good model? It seems a bit simple to me, like you pick two things, structure and source. What if I wanted a Democratically elected Ecclesiocracy (the people vote in the ruling clergy)? That doesn't fit in that model. Or a democratically elected life-time Monarch?
Structure almost doesn't seem like it fits in anywhere gameplay wise (though I'd like it to).
I'm really lost here nodevs. How do you even begin to design a model?