Anyone care to help me with government types?

[unmerged(94581)]

I haven't actually played a Vicky game past 1860 so I'm not much familiar with this part of the game. I've read what there is on the wiki, but still can't quite make up my mind.

I'm playing Netherlands and it's 1853. I annexed Belgium, took over pieces of Siam, and built up some industries. Around '45 I had Liberal Revolution happen to me and it all went downhill. Although the revolution event just ended, I still have a lot of very militant craftsmen and clerks, even occasional liberal farmers.

I'm a small country, who doesn't get immigration, so it just kills me to have to watch my cavalry mow down my own people on what seems like monthly basis.

Checking my POP statistics I see that 80% of them are liberal, while my party in power is conservative. Of course, if I change the party under monarchy, I'll add even more MIL to my people, making the problem worse. At the same time I'm afraid to switch to democracy because my plurality is only 13% and every election losers' MIL will increase. I've learned that lesson playing Columbia...

Is there anything I can do to not have bloody clashes in the streets all the time?

Is Constitutional Monarchy the answer, or does that cause MIL to increase during elections as well?

What about timing? Is 1850s too early to go Democracy? Should I just clamp down on protestors for another decade or two?

 

[Redhead]

Just off the cuff. Go to the POP screen and hover the cursor over the militant pop's. You will be informed about the causes of the militancy. Check the most urgent issues and address them. Might be they want social reforms - enact them. If you want to keep the monarchy be careful with the political ones. Reducing taxes could be helpful. And of course stationing your troops in a province (gets you fat -0,20 mil reduction).

Oh, and if 80% of your people are liberal anyway why not to make elections and get the liberals voted into power ? That way 80% of you people are less militant and you only have problems with the remaining 20%.

Yes, you get militancy increase for losing elections under con-mon as well. That is reduced by high plurality to my knowledge.

 

[unmerged(94581)]

Thanks, Redhead. They want everything and, of course, I can't give it to them without going bankrupt.

I suspect that their biggest qualm is with my maxed out tariffs, which is why they are all liberal now, wishing for Laissez Faire, even farmers and labourers. But if I enact democracy now, I fear that as soon as the liberals get elected and tariffs are eliminated, all those farmers and labourers will revert to their core conservative issues, this will give me a divided country under democracy with low pluralism. This I found before to be equivalent to national suicide.

Don't get me wrong. I would like a stable liberal democracy. It would speed up rail construction for me. I'm just afraid going democratic right now would make things even worse. Is that an unfounded suspicion?

 

[RELee]

Remember, in a democracy, higher plurality lowers pops' militancy.

 

[Redhead]

I thought your people might have lots of issues. Just pick the ones you can address. And don't forget the mil decrease from your troops in a province

Yes, your lower income classes might revert to conservatism. If so, you could launch another elections though and get the conservatives back with another militancy reduction

Worse case would be if they voted anarcho-liberals into power instead of liberals - you could become presidential dictatorship. That's possible with high militancy. The dictatorship is avoided if you have landed or wealth voting rights (even with extremists in power), so if you decide to make elections rather don't go for universal suffrage. Wealth would be better IMO - bigger chance of getting liberals (and reducing the overall militancy). Aristocrats just love conservatives and might elect them with landed voting rights. You could save and change various options in the politics screen and reload if something doesn't work as planned.

 

[unmerged(94581)]

I tried Constitutional Monarchy and didn't see any militancy increase after election for the losing side supporters. So it all worked out pretty well for me. Everybody is just ecstatic about cheap imports now and are happily satisfying their needs instead of revolting.

Some did revert to conservatism, as I predicted, but even they still have at least one of the dominant issues laissez faire, which means they still sort of enjoy the party in power. And it wasn't as many as I thought. I made it to '70 and still have 70% liberal support.

 

[unmerged(179588)]

In my experience for European monarchies with good economy, such as Netherlands changing to Con Mon with wealth based suffrage when the liberal revolution starts is the best solution, it will probably give you a liberal party in power that makes a lot of people happier. The downside is that most liberal parties are pacifist or antimilitary, which can make your country a target of your bully neighbours.