• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

Dev Diary #45 - Elections

16_9.jpg

Good evening and welcome once again to a Victoria 3 Development Diary! Today’s topic is elections. We’ll be covering the various laws that enable and affect voting, as well as the progression of Election Campaigns and how they affect political power in your country. We'll briefly be mentioning Political Parties in this dev diary, but they’re not the focus of this week - more on that next time! For now, I’ll just say that Political Parties in Victoria 3 exist in democracies and are made up of alliances of Interest Groups.

A country has Elections if it has any of the Distribution of Power laws that enable voting:
  • Landed Voting: Aristocrats, Capitalists, Clergymen, and Officers hold essentially all voting power, gaining a huge bonus to the Political Strength they contribute to their Interest Groups.
  • Wealth Voting: There is a Wealth Threshold that determines a pop’s eligibility to vote. Pops that can vote have more Political Strength.
  • Census Suffrage: The Wealth Threshold is significantly lower than in Wealth Voting. Literate pops contribute much more Political Strength to their Interest Groups.
  • Universal Suffrage: There is no Wealth Threshold for voting. Pop type and literacy do not grant additional Political Strength. Though of course a pop’s wealth will continue to contribute to their Political Strength, and Literacy will make pops more politically engaged.

Under the Wealth Voting Law, political power is held by the pops (and their Interest Groups) who can accumulate the most wealth, and largely denied entirely to the destitute. This naturally favors Aristocrats and the Landowners in more agricultural economies, while favoring Capitalists and the Industrialists in more industrialized economies.
votinglaws.png

All of these laws are compatible with any of the Governance Principles laws. A country with the Monarchy law for instance could be an absolute monarchy with no voting system at all, or it could have Universal Suffrage - likewise a Republic might very well be a presidential dictatorship. If you are so inclined, you could even create a Council Republic or Theocracy that uses Wealth Voting (though it would be bound to create some political conflict, to put it lightly).

There are three factors that, when applicable, will prevent pops from voting entirely:
  1. Discrimination. Discriminated pops cannot vote in Elections.
  2. Living in an Unincorporated State. Only pops living in Incorporated States can participate in Elections. Pops living in, for example, a growing colony cannot vote.
  3. Politically Inactive pops do not vote, regardless of whether they are “legally” eligible. These pops are not part of any Interest Group, and tend to have low Literacy and/or Standard of Living. Peasants working in Subsistence Farms, for instance, are almost always Politically Inactive.

In 1913, suffragette Emily Davison was killed by the king’s horse during a race. A passionate believer in her cause, she had been arrested repeatedly by the British government and force-fed while on hunger strikes.
suffrage.png

This is a good opportunity to talk about the women’s suffrage movement. In Victoria 3, passing the Women’s Suffrage Law will greatly increase both your Workforce Ratio and your Dependent Enfranchisement. This means that a greater proportion of pops will be eligible to work in Buildings, and a much greater proportion of Dependents will now count towards the voting power of their pop. There will be very little support among Interest Groups to pass this Law in 1836 however. After researching Feminism (or having the technology spread to your country), politicians will begin to appear with the Feminist ideology, which causes them to strongly approve of Women’s Suffrage and disapprove of less egalitarian laws. Once you research Political Agitation, the suffrage movement will begin in full force. The ‘Votes for Women’ Journal Entry will appear, and events will trigger from it that will give you the opportunity to grow or suppress the Political Movement. You can complete the Journal Entry by passing the Law and having your first Election Campaign with women eligible to vote; alternatively you can ignore or suppress the movement until it loses its momentum and withers away.

Why, you ask, would you want to suppress the suffrage movement? If you’re striving for an egalitarian society you certainly wouldn’t. But if instead you’re trying to preserve the aristocracy and maintain a conservative nation then not only will your ruling Interest Groups strongly disapprove of Women’s Suffrage but it will also be very harmful to their political power. Greater Dependent Enfranchisement inherently benefits larger pops more than smaller pops (especially under more egalitarian Laws like Universal Suffrage where wealth counts for less), and it is inevitable that there are vastly more Laborers, Machinists, and Farmers than there ever will be Aristocrats or Capitalists. Pops may begin to wonder why the Lower Strata, the largest class, does not simply eat the other two.

The Whigs took a catastrophic hit in the polls after I repeatedly fired a negative election event to test the system.
electioncampaign.png

Elections happen every 4 years in countries with voting laws. An Election Campaign begins 6 months prior to a country’s Election date. Each Political Party is assigned a Momentum value at the beginning of the Campaign, which is a measure of the success of their campaign and is a major factor in determining how many Votes they will garner on election day. During this campaign, Momentum will fluctuate for each of the running Political Parties and impact the final result. Since Parties, Leaders, and many other aspects of the political scene in your country are likely to have changed in the years since the previous election, the Momentum from previous elections does not carry over and is reset. Momentum can be affected by chance, events, and the Popularity of Interest Group Leaders.

The Tories’ success in the last election empowered the Landed Gentry, though the sheer wealth of their aristocratic supporters is still the largest contributor to their Political Strength under Great Britain’s Wealth Voting law.
electionvotespower.png

When the Election Campaign ends, the votes are in and the results are set in place until the next election. Interest Groups receive additional Political Strength from their party’s Votes, which will be a major factor determining your Legitimacy and therefore the effectiveness of your government. The actual makeup of your government is still up to you; just like the electoral systems of most modern countries, winning the popular vote does not automatically mean that a certain party or coalition of parties gets to form a government. But the post-election strength of your Interest Groups and their Party affiliations should be a major consideration, especially if you’re forming a minority government.

In Victoria 3, Elections can be a powerful force for political change but also a source of volatility. Dealing with (and if you’re so inclined, manipulating) Election results will be a major consideration when you form your governments. In this dev diary I’ve mentioned Political Parties, and we know you’re eager to hear more about them since the last time we communicated on the topic. You’ll be pleased to discover that in next week’s dev diary we’ll be covering our design for Political Parties in more detail, so watch this space!
 
  • 187Like
  • 48Love
  • 18
  • 7
  • 5
  • 1Haha
Reactions:
This comment has been reserved by the community team to gather up dev responses for ease of reading.

YoMomma123456 said:
If Parties are alliances of Interest Groups, where do Trade Unionists go - social democrats or communists - as both of these had their foundations in trade unions? And who takes the place of the other party?

More on this next week!

Fallofthepurple said:
Devs openly rigging elections now, what's next?

Which is probably a good time to ask if election events solely change Momentum or can have other impacts (like IG satisfaction). What type of events are there? Can Momentum related events backfire, like say attempted rigging be uncovered?

Election events almost always have effects other than Momentum changes.

Voigt said:
How does the women’s suffrage movement work in absolute monarchies like Japan? Will I be able to still enact it, to have Female Empresses beside just Emporer and also get woman in the workforce, while still not allowing any voting whatsoever?

Women's Suffrage can only be enacted in countries with Elections.

Faeelin said:
Where does the notion that peasants don't vote from from? Especially if you have universal suffrage?

Peasants are usually Politically Inactive due to their low wealth and literacy. Wealthier and more educated peasants might very well develop some political consciousness and start supporting the Rural Folk though.

lachek

"The reason an election doesn't simply cause "the winning" party to take power is because, outside of two-party states, we need to give the player a chance to build a ruling coalition. Say an election split the vote 50/30/20 between the Conservative, Free Trade, and Religious parties. I might not want the Conservatives in charge at all, and decide the Free Trade + Religious parties result in sufficient Legitimacy to get by - or I could sideline the Free Trade party entirely by putting the Conservative and Religious parties in charge. This is hardly even "gamey", these kinds of post-election negotiations that set the terms for what might be politically feasible during the upcoming mandate period are virtually the norm in almost all democratic countries. We also permit free Interest Groups unaligned with any party to support a ruling party, if for example the Armed Forces have decided to stand outside party politics entirely but still have considerable Wealth-derived Political Strength due to consisting mostly of Aristocrats and well-paid Officers and supported by high-ranking Generals. So player input into which coalition should form (and support) the government is necessary.

Normally, when kicking an Interest Group (or a Party, along with all its Interest Groups) out of government, it gains a bunch of Radicals who are displeased with being removed from power. Just after an election, this penalty is revoked for a single reformation of the player's government, incentivizing using this opportunity to optimize Legitimacy in light of these new election results.

On the subject of the fine details of electoral systems (length of mandate periods, proportional vs first-past-the-post, upper and lower houses, etc.) these details are very interesting and we've played with laws that govern some of this in the past. The problem was that they were hard to balance so they mattered as much as the other laws, and they did not feel impactful to enact. Not implying here that the details of electoral systems are unimportant - I've certainly had my share of lengthy debates of the impact of MMP vs FPTP - but in the simulation the impact isn't felt as tangibly and doesn't affect gameplay as much as, say, extending the voting franchise to more Pops or instituting a welfare program. So to do this justice we'd probably need a system of sub-laws or configurable laws, which isn't something we'll be able to do for release at least."

D.Knight said:
Is this hardcoded?
Virtually nothing is hardcoded, the term limit is just a define / parameter in the game files you can change if you want it longer or shorter. Making it variable based on decisions taken in-game isn't currently supported but should be very easy to do, for mod support at the very least. I'll put it on the todo-list. :)
 
Last edited:
  • 14Like
  • 1
Reactions:
If Parties are alliances of Interest Groups, where do Trade Unionists go - social democrats or communists - as both of these had their foundations in trade unions? And who takes the place of the other party?
 
  • 33Like
  • 1
Reactions:
So parties give bonuses to IGs, rather than the other way around, interesting.

Shouldn't Landed Voting also benefit Farmers as well as the Upper Strata, though? I thought they were supposed to represent middling landholders and experienced agricultural managers.
 
  • 11Like
Reactions:
Devs openly rigging elections now, what's next?

Which is probably a good time to ask if election events solely change Momentum or can have other impacts (like IG satisfaction). What type of events are there? Can Momentum related events backfire, like say attempted rigging be uncovered?
 
  • 16Like
  • 6Haha
  • 2
Reactions:
If Parties are alliances of Interest Groups, where do Trade Unionists go - social democrats or communists - as both of these had their foundations in trade unions? And who takes the place of the other party?
Please make it so IGs can be split by parties, as this shows how 2 party systems and the like come to be.
 
  • 20Like
  • 4
  • 4
Reactions:
Looks cool, though I can't help but wonder if it wouldn't have been better to do the Parties DD first so that we actually have full context of what any of this means in terms of what kind of effect it will have on the game.
 
  • 17Like
  • 3
  • 2
Reactions:
What does having a certain party in government mean, gameplay-wise?

Also, I hope a party having 100% of the votes is a situation that never happens in the final release. Even sham elections in the most dictatorial country rarely reach 100%
 
  • 9Like
  • 1
Reactions:
How does the women’s suffrage movement work in absolute monarchies like Japan? Will I be able to still enact it, to have Female Empresses beside just Emporer and also get woman in the workforce, while still not allowing any voting whatsoever?
 
  • 6Like
Reactions:
Great dev diary but I'm curious what impact election results have in determining who the president is in presidential republics that allow voting. Does the president automatically come from the largest interest group in the party that ends up serving in government? Is there a separate event for presidential elections to allow the player to choose who ends up winning? Is it possible for the president to come from a party that won less votes in an election even though that would be unlikely in a presidential system?
 
  • 15Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Can the duration between elections be changed by law? Or at least modded? Four years seems a bit restrictive to be the only option for every single democracy on Earth.
 
  • 13Like
  • 9
  • 1
Reactions:
Sweet! Democracy is on the rise!
Just two questions:
1: Is the player able to customize the election term duration (six, five or three years for example)?
2: Is it possible to have an election system with compulsory voting?
Thanks for your time guys!
 
  • 6Like
  • 1
Reactions:
When the Election Campaign ends, the votes are in and the results are set in place until the next election. Interest Groups receive additional Political Strength from their party’s Votes, which will be a major factor determining your Legitimacy and therefore the effectiveness of your government. The actual makeup of your government is still up to you; just like the electoral systems of most modern countries, winning the popular vote does not automatically mean that a certain party or coalition of parties gets to form a government. But the post-election strength of your Interest Groups and their Party affiliations should be a major consideration, especially if you’re forming a minority government.

Is it possible to have Electoral Disctricts? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_district

Is there political bickering/gerrymandering to block the government action somehow?

In case the player goes for a minority government, is it possible to force a new election before the terms end due to government paralysis?

Are there party political leaders as there are interest groups leaders?

How much party political leaders or Interest Groups leaders affect the elections results? For example, if there is an election and the political leader dies during the election.
 
  • 4Like
  • 4
Reactions:
Looks great!
1. I remember in vic 2 you'd just call snap elections until the party you wanted got into power, has that opportunity been removed?

2. Are election laws a thing? Are all countries two party-systems, and if not: what determines if a country will have multi-party elections?

3. Is there anything that isn't in the build right now, but that you would like to add in the future?
 
Last edited:
  • 2Like
Reactions:
Why does momentum completely reset? There is an incumbency advantage, also winning parties work to entrench their power during their term. A portion of momentum carrying over would be a good way to simulate that rather than each election starting from a blank slate.
 
  • 21Like
  • 5
  • 1
Reactions:
Looks great, I particularly appreciate how pop wealth and literacy will still impact voting behavior even in countries with universal sufferage. It really captures the social and economic factors that influence turnout even in places with universal sufferage.

A couple comments/questions, is there any link between turmoil/unrest and turnout? It seems to me that in democracies groups that are upset should be more inclined to vote and press their agenda, which would also be a great feedback mechanism for things like economic crashes or wars to influence domestic politics by activating new voters. I'm also somewhat concerned that the low turnout from peasants will completely mute their political power; sure they certainly were not as active in political processes, but the peasantry could and did wield significant political power when aroused.
 
Last edited:
  • 3Like
  • 2
Reactions: