Government Approval

Government approval measures how much of the population supports the current government. It is tracked per country as a percentage (0-100) and updates each turn. Low approval has real political consequences — it weakens the governing party's position and can embolden opposition action.

How Approval Is Derived

Government approval is computed from state metrics compared against national averages, not from the head of government's personal favorability. Every turn, the system evaluates each state's performance across 10 metric categories, compares each metric to the national average, and produces a state approval score. National approval is the population-weighted average of all state scores.

This means approval reflects the objective condition of the country — economy, healthcare, infrastructure, safety, environment — as experienced by the population, rather than the popularity of any individual politician.

Note: A country's notional approval source is derived from its government type via getApprovalSourceForCountry(countryId) — presidential systems map to "president_favorability", all parliamentary-style and one-party systems map to "pm_favorability". This derivation is groundwork for a future leader-driven approval model; the live system today always computes approval via the aggregate metric method described below.

Metric Categories

Approval draws from 10 categories, each containing 4-7 individual metrics:

Category	Sample Metrics
Economic	unemploymentRate, medianIncome, gdpGrowth, povertyRate, costOfLiving, smallBusinessFormation
Education	highSchoolGradRate, collegeEnrollment, testPerformance, educationSpending, literacyRate, workforceSkill
Healthcare	uninsuredRate, affordabilityIndex, physicianRate, lifeExpectancy, preventableMortality, publicHealthPreparedness
Infrastructure	roadCondition, broadbandAccess, publicTransit, waterQuality, powerGridReliability, infrastructureInvestmentGap
Public Safety	crimeRate, violentCrimeRate, policePerCapita, incarcerationRate, recidivismRate, publicSafetyConfidence
Environment	airQuality, renewableEnergy, carbonEmissions, recyclingRate, climateResilience, protectedLand
Social	socialMobility, incomeInequality, homelessnessRate, foodInsecurity, civicParticipation, socialCohesion
Governance	governmentTransparency, budgetBalance, corruptionIndex, voterTurnout, publicTrust
Population	populationGrowth, urbanizationRate, medianAge, migrationRate
Media & Information	mediaPolarization, disinformationRisk, pressFreedom, socialMediaSentiment, newsTrust

For each metric, the system knows whether higher values are good (e.g., GDP growth, life expectancy) or lower values are good (e.g., unemployment, crime rate). The direction is inverted for "lower is better" metrics before comparison.

The Calculation

Per-metric contribution

For every metric where both the state value and national average are available:

pctDiff = (stateValue - nationalAverage) / nationalAverage
signedDiff = higherIsBetter ? pctDiff : -pctDiff
contribution = clamp(signedDiff * 15, -2, +2)

Each metric can contribute at most +/-2 points to the score. The scale factor of 15 means a metric must be roughly 13% above average to hit the +2 cap, or 13% below to hit -2.

State approval formula

baseScore = 50 + (sum of all contributions / number of metrics evaluated) * 2.5
stateApproval = clamp(baseScore, 0, 100)

If a state has no metrics data, it defaults to 50%.

National approval

nationalApproval = sum(stateApproval * statePopulation) / sum(statePopulation)

The national score is rounded to one decimal place and clamped to 0-100.

Named Modifiers

After the base metric score is computed, the system checks for named conditions (styled after Democracy 3) that add or subtract small bonuses when their thresholds are met. These stack: multiple active conditions sum their effects.

There are 55 defined modifiers, each with 1–3 metric conditions that must all be met. Examples:

Modifier	Effect	Conditions
Economic Boom	+2	GDP growth >= 3.0% AND unemployment <= 4.5%
Recession	-3	GDP growth <= 0% AND unemployment >= 7%
Healthcare Excellence	+2	Life expectancy >= 83 AND affordability >= 78
Healthcare System Strain	-2	Affordability <= 48 AND preventable mortality >= 350
Low Crime Rate	+2	Crime rate <= 2,800 AND safety confidence >= 70
Crime Wave	-2	Crime rate >= 5,000 AND violent crime >= 380
Clean Environment	+2	Renewable energy >= 50% AND air quality <= 25
Environmental Degradation	-2	Air quality >= 48 AND carbon emissions >= 18
High Government Transparency	+2	Transparency >= 78 AND public trust >= 62
High Corruption	-3	Corruption index >= 48 AND public trust <= 35
Fiscal Crisis	-2	Budget balance <= -5.0% of GDP
Modern Infrastructure	+2	Roads >= 80, broadband >= 90, water >= 95
Crumbling Infrastructure	-2	Roads <= 55, water <= 80, broadband <= 68
Free Press	+1	Press freedom >= 75
Restricted Press Freedom	-2	Press freedom <= 40 AND disinformation risk >= 50
Strong Social Cohesion	+1	Social cohesion >= 68 AND civic participation >= 62
Social Fragmentation	-2	Food insecurity >= 16 AND social cohesion <= 45
Cost of Living Crisis	-2	Cost of living >= 140 AND poverty >= 17%
Population Decline	-1	Population growth <= 0 AND migration <= 0
High Immigration Pressure	-1	Migration rate >= 0.4%

The full set of 55 modifiers covers economic, healthcare, safety, environmental, governance, social, infrastructure, media, and demographic conditions. Effects range from -3 (severe crises) to +2 (exceptional performance), with most modifiers at +/-1.

Modifiers are evaluated against the same flat metrics map used for the base score, so they work on both individual states and pre-computed national averages.

Cabinet Penalties

Two penalties are applied to the national approval score after all metric and modifier calculations:

Penalty	Condition	Amount
No cabinet	Country has zero confirmed cabinet members	-7.5
Acting appointments	Each unconfirmed (acting) cabinet member in countries with Senate confirmation	-0.5 per acting member

A country without a functioning cabinet is heavily penalised. The acting-appointment penalty stacks per member, so a cabinet with 5 acting members loses an additional 2.5 points.

What the Document Tracks

Each country has one approval document with:

approvalRating: 0-100, percentage of population approving
disapprovalRating: 0-100, percentage disapproving (computed as 100 - approval)
netApproval: approvalRating - disapprovalRating (can be negative)
source: Always "aggregate" — computed from metrics, not favorability
history: Last 20 turns of approval/net values for charting (capped at 20 entries)

Approval and disapproval sum to exactly 100 — there is no "undecided" category in this system.

Crises and Approval

Active crises can apply direct approval effects each turn. Crisis effects with targetType: "approval" add or subtract from the national approval rating of all affected countries. These are flat or tick-based effects applied during turn processing (Group 11, after corporations and before history snapshots). A major crisis can swing approval by several points per turn independently of the metric-based calculation.

Snap Elections

The wiki previously claimed that low UK government approval triggers snap elections. This is incorrect. Snap elections in parliamentary countries (UK, JP, DE) are triggered by:

PM initiative: A sitting Prime Minister (or Chancellor in DE) voluntarily dissolves the lower chamber.
PM vacancy deadline: If no PM is appointed within 96 turns of the government entering "pending" status, the system auto-triggers a snap election.

There is no approval threshold for snap elections. The 96-turn vacancy clock is the automatic trigger. See Snap Elections for full mechanics.

For US and other fixed-term systems, low approval does not directly end a term — but it affects re-election prospects and can empower opposition members to pursue impeachment or no-confidence motions.

Reading the Approval Tracker

From any country's main page or government page, the approval chart shows:

Current approval and disapproval percentages
Net approval trend over the last 20 turns
Comparison to previous governments (historical line)

A net approval above +10 is generally considered safe political territory. Net approval below 0 (more disapproval than approval) is a warning sign.

Relationship to Elections

Government approval directly scales the vote pool in every election. Each state's government approval rating is converted to a decimal and applied as a strengthMultiplier:

Presidential elections: (1 + (approval - 0.5) * 0.5) * officeStrength — a swing of up to +/-25% from the 50% baseline
Legislative and other elections: (1 + (approval - 0.5) * 0.2) * officeStrength — a swing of up to +/-10%

On top of this direct scaling, approval is a useful leading indicator:

Low approval reflects poor national conditions, which hurts the governing party's candidates through the direct multiplier and through primary resolution
Low approval motivates opposition players to run stronger campaigns and pass no-confidence votes
High approval gives the governing party a morale and recruitment advantage
Crisis-driven approval swings can signal electoral volatility

Strategic Management

As head of government:

Pass legislation that improves economic and social metrics — these feed directly into approval
Monitor the 10 metric categories; weakness in any one drags the average
Appoint a capable Central Bank Chair who keeps inflation near 2% and GDP growth positive
Form a full cabinet promptly — the -7.5 no-cabinet penalty is severe
Avoid acting appointments where Senate confirmation is available

As opposition:

Track metric trends — if inflation rises or unemployment spikes, approval will follow downward
Vote against government bills that would improve key metrics
In the UK: monitor the PM vacancy clock, not approval thresholds, for snap election opportunities