I just posted the bulk of this in another thread, but that thread has a very uninformative title, so in the hope that someone might read this 
I present a Plurality FAQ. In practice it's just as much of a Consciousness FAQ - the concepts are so locked together that they must be discussed at the same time. All corrections, additions, and comments are welcome.
What is plurality?
Plurality can best be described as your POPs' desire for, and expectation of, social reform. It is found on the political-view screen and ranges from 0.0% to 100.0% - never less, never more. Plurality may drop below 0.0% or rise above 100.0% for brief periods, but has always been observed (by me, at any rate) to return to this range on the first of the following month.
What causes plurality?
Plurality is caused by high average consciousness. Specifically, the rate at which it increases seems to be proportional to average consciousness. In addition, plurality itself is a direct (and always positive) modifier to consciousness. Plurality is always increasing with the following exceptions:
1. After you research the culture technology "Ideological Thought", if your ruling party is of a Conservative ideology, you get the inventions "Authoritarianism", "Hierarchical Order", "Traditionalism", "Political Religion", and "Paternalism". Each of these decreases plurality by 5.0%. Conversely, if you research "Ideological Thought" with a Liberal or Socialist ruling party, you get different inventions, such as "Rationalism" or "Collectivism", which increase plurality by 5.0%.
2. After you research the culture technology "State and Government", if you do not have a Socialist ruling party, an event will ask you to choose whether Meritocracy or Aristocracy is to be the guiding principle of your government. If you choose Aristocracy, an event - "The Capitalists are Socially Degraded" - will eventually occur which decreases plurality by 50.0%. Conversely, choosing Meritocracy will trigger the events "The Aristocrats Withdraw to their Castles and Manors" and "Merit is the Guiding Succession Principle in Government", each of which increase plurality by 50.0%.
What do you do about plurality?
In this case, preventative medicine is by far the most effective. Except for those five inventions, and that event, you cannot lower plurality, only slow down its growth. Remember, high average consciousness causes plurality to increase faster. And high plurality causes consciousness to increase faster... and so on, and so on.
So you must lower your POPs' average consciousness. Unfortunately, there are not many ways to do this.
1. Clergy are the most effective - each clergy POP in a province gives a -0.25 modifier to the consciousness of farmer, labourer, soldier, and slave POPs in that province. But if you want to industrialize your nation, you'll be converting most of these POPs to craftsmen and clerks, who are unaffected by clergy. And clergy actually increase the consciousness of aristocrats, capitalists, and officers.
2. Over-funding social reforms - unless you have a laissez-faire government, which will not allow you to do this - is another good technique. This creates the "Trust in Government" consciousness modifier, which is 0.01 for each 10% of over- (or under-)funding of social reforms. For example, if you institute some inexpensive social reform - such as the lowest level of unemployment subsidies - and give the social spending slider 100% funding, all your POPs will get a -0.05 consciousness modifier, without it actually costing you very much.
3. However, if you really want to drive down average consciousness, the single best thing you can do is the most painful in the short term - lower your taxes. All POPs, of all classes, are content with being taxed 33% of their income (see Technical Note below). If less, their consciousness gets a modifier equal to (tax-0.33); zero taxes produces a consciousness modifier of -0.33. The same applies to taxes of higher than 33% - full taxation produces a modifier of +0.67.
In practice, as of the current patch, you cannot survive the first few (pre-massive-industrialization) years without taxing some class more than 33%. I recommend keeping lower-class taxes below 33% from the start, though. Those POPs will always be the largest and most numerous, and remember, lowering average consciousness is the key to defeating plurality.
*Technical Note: This "base" tax rate - which determines the consciousness modifier - is multiplied by both "tax efficiency" and "class-specific efficiency" to produce your actual tax revenues. So a base tax rate of 33% can produce revenues closer to 50% of what you would get "if you would bleed them dry". If you want to really fine-tune your taxes, you have to do the math rather than just dividing revenues by the stated maximum possible revenues.
So, plurality should always be avoided?
Not necessarily. Plurality itself is never a good thing. High average consciousness can be a good thing, though - if you are a democracy and want your POPs to vote the way they "should". In this case, the trick is to manage the unwanted side-effect of high plurality. The effects of plurality on militancy must be understood.
Plurality increases consciousness for all classes, all the time, under any form of government. However, plurality increases militancy under monarchies and constitutional monarchies, and it decreases militancy under democracies. The exact degree to which it does this is determined, once again, by your population's average consciousness, subject to hard caps. If all your POPs have consciousness = 10, and plurality is 100%, militancy will have a plurality modifier of +0.40 in a monarchy and -0.20 in a democracy. If average consciousness = 5 and plurality is 50%, the numbers would be +0.25 and -0.20. Militancy increases from plurality in a non-democracy are capped at 0.40; militancy decreases from plurality in a democracy are capped at -0.20.
However, in addition to serving as a direct modifier on militancy (proportional to average consciousness, and capped depending on form of government), plurality serves to scale the effects of social and political reforms, or the lack thereof, on militancy. For example, at 100% plurality, having full safety regulations increases upper-class militancy by the full +0.10. At 0% plurality, the lower-class POPs don't care about the lack of social reforms, nor do the upper-class POPs care if they are granted. The exact effects of each level of each reform differ by class, and from reform to reform - but are always multiplied by plurality before being applied to militancy.
So, to some extent, you can buy your way out of high plurality with militancy-reducing social reforms - because high plurality increases their effects. It's far cheaper to never let plurality rise in the first place.
If you master the very-much-related concepts of plurality and consciousness, you can shape your society pretty much any way you want to. You can keep a monarchy thriving well into the 20th century by lowering consciousness, and thus plurality. But you have to commit to that course from the very start of the game - just a few years of high taxes increases consciousness to a degree that can take decades of low taxes to reverse.
I present a Plurality FAQ. In practice it's just as much of a Consciousness FAQ - the concepts are so locked together that they must be discussed at the same time. All corrections, additions, and comments are welcome.What is plurality?
Plurality can best be described as your POPs' desire for, and expectation of, social reform. It is found on the political-view screen and ranges from 0.0% to 100.0% - never less, never more. Plurality may drop below 0.0% or rise above 100.0% for brief periods, but has always been observed (by me, at any rate) to return to this range on the first of the following month.
What causes plurality?
Plurality is caused by high average consciousness. Specifically, the rate at which it increases seems to be proportional to average consciousness. In addition, plurality itself is a direct (and always positive) modifier to consciousness. Plurality is always increasing with the following exceptions:
1. After you research the culture technology "Ideological Thought", if your ruling party is of a Conservative ideology, you get the inventions "Authoritarianism", "Hierarchical Order", "Traditionalism", "Political Religion", and "Paternalism". Each of these decreases plurality by 5.0%. Conversely, if you research "Ideological Thought" with a Liberal or Socialist ruling party, you get different inventions, such as "Rationalism" or "Collectivism", which increase plurality by 5.0%.
2. After you research the culture technology "State and Government", if you do not have a Socialist ruling party, an event will ask you to choose whether Meritocracy or Aristocracy is to be the guiding principle of your government. If you choose Aristocracy, an event - "The Capitalists are Socially Degraded" - will eventually occur which decreases plurality by 50.0%. Conversely, choosing Meritocracy will trigger the events "The Aristocrats Withdraw to their Castles and Manors" and "Merit is the Guiding Succession Principle in Government", each of which increase plurality by 50.0%.
What do you do about plurality?
In this case, preventative medicine is by far the most effective. Except for those five inventions, and that event, you cannot lower plurality, only slow down its growth. Remember, high average consciousness causes plurality to increase faster. And high plurality causes consciousness to increase faster... and so on, and so on.
So you must lower your POPs' average consciousness. Unfortunately, there are not many ways to do this.
1. Clergy are the most effective - each clergy POP in a province gives a -0.25 modifier to the consciousness of farmer, labourer, soldier, and slave POPs in that province. But if you want to industrialize your nation, you'll be converting most of these POPs to craftsmen and clerks, who are unaffected by clergy. And clergy actually increase the consciousness of aristocrats, capitalists, and officers.
2. Over-funding social reforms - unless you have a laissez-faire government, which will not allow you to do this - is another good technique. This creates the "Trust in Government" consciousness modifier, which is 0.01 for each 10% of over- (or under-)funding of social reforms. For example, if you institute some inexpensive social reform - such as the lowest level of unemployment subsidies - and give the social spending slider 100% funding, all your POPs will get a -0.05 consciousness modifier, without it actually costing you very much.
3. However, if you really want to drive down average consciousness, the single best thing you can do is the most painful in the short term - lower your taxes. All POPs, of all classes, are content with being taxed 33% of their income (see Technical Note below). If less, their consciousness gets a modifier equal to (tax-0.33); zero taxes produces a consciousness modifier of -0.33. The same applies to taxes of higher than 33% - full taxation produces a modifier of +0.67.
In practice, as of the current patch, you cannot survive the first few (pre-massive-industrialization) years without taxing some class more than 33%. I recommend keeping lower-class taxes below 33% from the start, though. Those POPs will always be the largest and most numerous, and remember, lowering average consciousness is the key to defeating plurality.
*Technical Note: This "base" tax rate - which determines the consciousness modifier - is multiplied by both "tax efficiency" and "class-specific efficiency" to produce your actual tax revenues. So a base tax rate of 33% can produce revenues closer to 50% of what you would get "if you would bleed them dry". If you want to really fine-tune your taxes, you have to do the math rather than just dividing revenues by the stated maximum possible revenues.
So, plurality should always be avoided?
Not necessarily. Plurality itself is never a good thing. High average consciousness can be a good thing, though - if you are a democracy and want your POPs to vote the way they "should". In this case, the trick is to manage the unwanted side-effect of high plurality. The effects of plurality on militancy must be understood.
Plurality increases consciousness for all classes, all the time, under any form of government. However, plurality increases militancy under monarchies and constitutional monarchies, and it decreases militancy under democracies. The exact degree to which it does this is determined, once again, by your population's average consciousness, subject to hard caps. If all your POPs have consciousness = 10, and plurality is 100%, militancy will have a plurality modifier of +0.40 in a monarchy and -0.20 in a democracy. If average consciousness = 5 and plurality is 50%, the numbers would be +0.25 and -0.20. Militancy increases from plurality in a non-democracy are capped at 0.40; militancy decreases from plurality in a democracy are capped at -0.20.
However, in addition to serving as a direct modifier on militancy (proportional to average consciousness, and capped depending on form of government), plurality serves to scale the effects of social and political reforms, or the lack thereof, on militancy. For example, at 100% plurality, having full safety regulations increases upper-class militancy by the full +0.10. At 0% plurality, the lower-class POPs don't care about the lack of social reforms, nor do the upper-class POPs care if they are granted. The exact effects of each level of each reform differ by class, and from reform to reform - but are always multiplied by plurality before being applied to militancy.
So, to some extent, you can buy your way out of high plurality with militancy-reducing social reforms - because high plurality increases their effects. It's far cheaper to never let plurality rise in the first place.
If you master the very-much-related concepts of plurality and consciousness, you can shape your society pretty much any way you want to. You can keep a monarchy thriving well into the 20th century by lowering consciousness, and thus plurality. But you have to commit to that course from the very start of the game - just a few years of high taxes increases consciousness to a degree that can take decades of low taxes to reverse.
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