Government

The numbers in green refer to the number of alternative laws currently available to be enacted in that sub-category.

The government is composed of the interest groups in power. Which interest groups are in government generally determines which laws can be enacted. All interest groups not in government make up the opposition. All eight interest groups can potentially be put in government together, although it is inadvisable due to the low  legitimacy that would result.

Only non-marginalized interest groups can be added to the government. Similarly, interest groups supporting a revolutionary movement cannot be added to the government.

Removing an interest group from the government makes pops supporting that interest group more radical.

Enacting laws

At the checkpoint, one of the 4 options (success, debate, advance, stall) happens.

Main article: Laws

To enact a law, at least one interest group in the current government or the ruler needs to be in favor of the law proposal or there has to be an active movement to support the law. If a government is considered illegitimate (below 25 legitimacy) it is completely unable to pass any law; if an enactment process has already started, it makes no progress while the government is illegitimate.

Legitimacy

Legitimacy is the measure of the balance of power of interest groups that compose the government. It ranges from 0 to 100. Each level has discrete benefits or penalties, as well as scaling pop loyalty effects.

Level	Value	Enactment		Opposition Approval	Radicals and Loyalists
		Able	Time		SOL Changes	per Month
Illegitimate	25<			−3	+50%	+3.0% – +1.56%
Unacceptable	25-49		+50%	−2	+25%	+1.5% – +0.06%
Contested	50-74			−1
Legitimate	75-89				+25%	+0.14% – +2.1%
Righteous	90+		−25%		+25%	+3.00% – +5.0%

Legitimacy comes primarily from the total clout of the interest groups in power, and – in countries with elections – from the vote share in the last election. Certain laws, such as  Monarchy, also add legitimacy from including the ruler's interest group in government. Legitimacy is reduced by 20 when including too many interest groups or parties in government, above the government size allowance. It is also reduced when interest groups in government are ideologically opposed on law preferences, scaling by how opposed they are.

Political Parties

Main article: Political party

If the Distribution of Power law allows for any kind of voting, interest groups may found and join parties. If a party contains more than one interest group, it is not possible to add any of them to the government without adding all the interest groups in the party; similarly for removing interest groups from government. Additionally, a political party counts as a single interest group for the purposes of government size, regardless of how many interest groups have joined that party.