Dev Diary #5 - Political Parties 🗳️
What's happening / TLDR: Developer diaries introduce details of Espiocracy - Cold War strategy game in which you play as an intelligence agency. You can catch up with the most important dev diary (The Vision) and find out more on Steam page.
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Howdy,
After ideologies (DD#3) and populations (DD#4), we will explore the third corner of political triangle in Espiocracy: political parties.
Transcript: Triangle of political parties, populations, and ideologies with views.
Here, political parties are living and breathing entities. Very much like the Cold War parties, they can be weaponized, serve as voice magnifier for the population, or, conversely, suppress the masses as an omnipresent organ of control.
To ensure tight integration with core gameplay, political parties are represented in the wider framework of non-state influential actors, alongside other organizations and individuals. To summarize this concept in one sentence: every country has a set of actors who shape the history and directly interact with the player. The next dev diary will be in full dedicated to various actors - meanwhile, we will take closer look at parties as a special case of an influential actor in the game.
[h2]Properties of Political Parties[/h2]
Transcript: Czechoslovak National Socialist Party. Cadre party representing liberal nationalism. Founded in 1897, known for WW2 resistance. Further described by example sections of: internal parameters, factions, recent activities, relationships, tactical intelligence, goals, future activities, past interactions.
Political parties are divided into four subtypes: mass, cadre, cadre-mass, and underground.
Particular subtypes differ in actions and growth dynamics. Mass party will focus on attracting millions of people, building large bureaucratic apparatus, and funding its activity with dues collected from members. Cadre party, instead, will cater to other influential actors, raise funds between wealthy individuals, and preserve hermetic staff composition, for better or worse.
As a whole organization, parties are associated with a single ideology, supplied by a set of additional views. However, they also have internal life in the form factions with ideologies and views of their own. In the case of CSNS, 91% of members subscribe to Zenkl's faction of liberal nationalism, which understandably dominates the party. At the same time, there is a small faction, led by Slechta, which prefers moderate socialism. Following real life events, Zenkl's faction can be purged out of the party, leading to the change of primary ideology, dropping "nationalist" from the name, and changing subtype. In addition to this example, factions are involved in a few more processes, such as choice of the candidate for elections or bloc parties absorbing smaller parties.
[h2]Activity of Political Parties[/h2]
Political parties have long-term goals, defined by previous and current situation. Objectives are fairly simple and range from survival to dominating global political life. These, along with possibilities (defined by members, funds, and so on), translate into actions. Non-comprehensive list of examples includes:
Political parties will essentially play a game in their own decision space, balancing internal growth with external activity. At the same time, they do not exist in the void - parties develop cordial or hostile relations with other actors and the intelligence agency controlled by the player.
Without spoiling next dev diaries about the precise nature of these interactions, here is an example of an intelligence operation which can be recreated in the game: British Socialist Party received (allegedly!) financial support from CIA but with strings attached - the agency demanded suppression of the communist faction within the party.
In addition to direct interaction, there is also information-wise aspect of gameplay surrounding actors: some knowledge is hidden and has to be acquired (represented as lines crossed out in black). It can be particularly useful if you gain insight into planned actions and react before they even happen!
[h2]Position of Political Parties[/h2]
Transcript: Presidential-parliamentary democracy with two leaders: President Edvard Benes and Prime Minister Klement Gottwald. Legislature, named as Constituent National Assembly, features six parties and has coalition involving all of them. Next election is expected in two years, to the parliament, with communist party currently at the top of polls.
Fruits of the struggle for power are defined by local political system. The game features democracies and autocracies with many subtypes (such as crowned democracy or multiparty autocracy). Actual government is represented by two bodies: leader(s) and legislature. Their role and election, in addition to rules dictated by the system, depends also on the strength of the system itself and individual actors. There are also variants such as external control or de facto leader in the backseat instead of a president or a prime minister.
Position of political parties can be changed by policies. On the one hand, the reach and influence can be expanded as was the case in USSR. On the other hand, specific organizations can be outright banned, which results in either total withdrawal or transformation into an underground party. The latter status strips such a party of legal actions, but at the same time opens the gates of new illegal activities. Sometimes banning a party can - probably with the assistance of an intelligence agency - literally weaponize it, similarly to some WW2 resistance movements.
[h2]Election[/h2]
In democracies, depending on the system type, population votes for political parties, candidates proposed by political parties, jointly for both government bodies, or in a referendum regarding specific issue. Sheer popular support follows alignment between parties/issue and the population. However, it doesn't directly translate to ballot paper. Election results are skewed by:
(Campaigns before elections, including propaganda operations executed by the player, do not modify election results directly - instead, they affect views in the population. This is very important, since one can promote a view among an ethnic group and do not influence elections, because this group cannot vote.)
[h2]Final remarks[/h2]
The next dev diary - "Influential actors" - will be posted on September 17th.
If you're not already wishlisting Espiocracy, consider doing it:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1670650/Espiocracy/
There is also a small community around Espiocracy:
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"It's got to look democratic, but we must have everything under our control" - Walter Ulbricht, First Secretary of Socialist Unity Party in East Germany (attributed)
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Howdy,
After ideologies (DD#3) and populations (DD#4), we will explore the third corner of political triangle in Espiocracy: political parties.
Transcript: Triangle of political parties, populations, and ideologies with views.Here, political parties are living and breathing entities. Very much like the Cold War parties, they can be weaponized, serve as voice magnifier for the population, or, conversely, suppress the masses as an omnipresent organ of control.
To ensure tight integration with core gameplay, political parties are represented in the wider framework of non-state influential actors, alongside other organizations and individuals. To summarize this concept in one sentence: every country has a set of actors who shape the history and directly interact with the player. The next dev diary will be in full dedicated to various actors - meanwhile, we will take closer look at parties as a special case of an influential actor in the game.
[h2]Properties of Political Parties[/h2]
Transcript: Czechoslovak National Socialist Party. Cadre party representing liberal nationalism. Founded in 1897, known for WW2 resistance. Further described by example sections of: internal parameters, factions, recent activities, relationships, tactical intelligence, goals, future activities, past interactions.Political parties are divided into four subtypes: mass, cadre, cadre-mass, and underground.
Particular subtypes differ in actions and growth dynamics. Mass party will focus on attracting millions of people, building large bureaucratic apparatus, and funding its activity with dues collected from members. Cadre party, instead, will cater to other influential actors, raise funds between wealthy individuals, and preserve hermetic staff composition, for better or worse.
As a whole organization, parties are associated with a single ideology, supplied by a set of additional views. However, they also have internal life in the form factions with ideologies and views of their own. In the case of CSNS, 91% of members subscribe to Zenkl's faction of liberal nationalism, which understandably dominates the party. At the same time, there is a small faction, led by Slechta, which prefers moderate socialism. Following real life events, Zenkl's faction can be purged out of the party, leading to the change of primary ideology, dropping "nationalist" from the name, and changing subtype. In addition to this example, factions are involved in a few more processes, such as choice of the candidate for elections or bloc parties absorbing smaller parties.
[h2]Activity of Political Parties[/h2]
Political parties have long-term goals, defined by previous and current situation. Objectives are fairly simple and range from survival to dominating global political life. These, along with possibilities (defined by members, funds, and so on), translate into actions. Non-comprehensive list of examples includes:
- Intensive campaigns (in addition to standard agitation)
- Pressing a policy (if present in legislature)
- Raising funds
- Modifying ideology
- Restructuring
- Interacting with other actors and the player in plethora of ways
Political parties will essentially play a game in their own decision space, balancing internal growth with external activity. At the same time, they do not exist in the void - parties develop cordial or hostile relations with other actors and the intelligence agency controlled by the player.
Without spoiling next dev diaries about the precise nature of these interactions, here is an example of an intelligence operation which can be recreated in the game: British Socialist Party received (allegedly!) financial support from CIA but with strings attached - the agency demanded suppression of the communist faction within the party.
In addition to direct interaction, there is also information-wise aspect of gameplay surrounding actors: some knowledge is hidden and has to be acquired (represented as lines crossed out in black). It can be particularly useful if you gain insight into planned actions and react before they even happen!
[h2]Position of Political Parties[/h2]
Transcript: Presidential-parliamentary democracy with two leaders: President Edvard Benes and Prime Minister Klement Gottwald. Legislature, named as Constituent National Assembly, features six parties and has coalition involving all of them. Next election is expected in two years, to the parliament, with communist party currently at the top of polls.Fruits of the struggle for power are defined by local political system. The game features democracies and autocracies with many subtypes (such as crowned democracy or multiparty autocracy). Actual government is represented by two bodies: leader(s) and legislature. Their role and election, in addition to rules dictated by the system, depends also on the strength of the system itself and individual actors. There are also variants such as external control or de facto leader in the backseat instead of a president or a prime minister.
Position of political parties can be changed by policies. On the one hand, the reach and influence can be expanded as was the case in USSR. On the other hand, specific organizations can be outright banned, which results in either total withdrawal or transformation into an underground party. The latter status strips such a party of legal actions, but at the same time opens the gates of new illegal activities. Sometimes banning a party can - probably with the assistance of an intelligence agency - literally weaponize it, similarly to some WW2 resistance movements.
[h2]Election[/h2]
In democracies, depending on the system type, population votes for political parties, candidates proposed by political parties, jointly for both government bodies, or in a referendum regarding specific issue. Sheer popular support follows alignment between parties/issue and the population. However, it doesn't directly translate to ballot paper. Election results are skewed by:
- Voting rights (eg. women and indigenous populations barred from voting)
- Semi-legal suppression (eg. racial intimidation)
- Direct vote fraud (up to rigged or sham elections)
- Repressing opposition (eg. political arrests)
(Campaigns before elections, including propaganda operations executed by the player, do not modify election results directly - instead, they affect views in the population. This is very important, since one can promote a view among an ethnic group and do not influence elections, because this group cannot vote.)
[h2]Final remarks[/h2]
The next dev diary - "Influential actors" - will be posted on September 17th.
If you're not already wishlisting Espiocracy, consider doing it:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1670650/Espiocracy/
There is also a small community around Espiocracy:
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"It's got to look democratic, but we must have everything under our control" - Walter Ulbricht, First Secretary of Socialist Unity Party in East Germany (attributed)