If you don't want to change leader (and probably flag) then you have the option to wait until world tension rises high enough for democracies to start declaring war. That should happen right after. . oh wait.
That wont allow you as a democratic nation to start annexing stuff tho, since non-core territory is much more expensive to take for democractic nations and they cant puppet nations aswell.
Not to hijack your thread, but I have a question too.
In today's stream I saw you can add artillery as a normal battalion, as oppsed as support.
What's the difference between the two, if any?
batallion sized artillery, aa and anti-tank is larger, thus more effective but also costs more. In the support slots they will adapt to the division they are attached to, i.e not penalize them in any way. They will automaticly match speed and attributes like being able to be paradropped of divisions.
Paratrooper divisions with support artillery can be paradropped and Paratroopers with battalion sized artillery cant. Support artillery in tank divisions capable of going 12 kp/h wont be slowed down since it is considered towed artillery, but as regular artillery they would be slowed down to 4 kp/h.