Government

Government is the political representation of what is happening in the player's country.

Political power

Political power represents the amount of influence a country's leader has over domestic affairs. The maximum quantity that can be stored is 2000.

Passive generation

Political power is generated at a base rate of +2 per day on Regular difficulty. The other difficulty levels add percentage bonuses and penalties, respectively.

Difficulty	Modifier
Civilian	+50%
Recruit	+25%
Regular	+0%
Veteran	-10%
Elite	-15%

The rate at which political power is generated is also influenced by a nation's stability. At 0% stability, political power gain is subject to a -50% modifier, and is subject to a +20% modifier at 100% stability. At 50% stability, there is no modifier to the political power gain.

Leaders with modifiers

Certain leaders have a trait which gives their nation a bonus or malus to Political Power. For example:

Leader	Trait	Country	Modifiers
Adolf Hitler	Dictator	German Reich	+25% Political power
Leon Trotsky	Permanent Revolutionary	Soviet Union	−15% Political power, +15% Justify war goal time, −30% Subversive activities cost
Edward VIII	Inexperienced Imperialist	Great Britain (Non-Aligned UK)	−30% Political power, +5% Stability, −25% Justify war goal time
Jake Richter	Master Maneuverer	East Germany	+15% Political power
Victoria	Kaiserin of the People	Germany (neutral ideology, via the "Request Restoration of British Titles" decision, requires Waking the Tiger)	+0.1% Weekly stability, +5% Stability, +5% War support, +10% Division defence on core territory, +15% Political power

National focus

Main article: National focus

National focuses were designed as replacements for the decisions in Hearts of Iron III. Only one national focus can be active at any given time, and each takes a certain number of days, usually 70 days. Focuses consume 1 political power a day. When completed, they provide benefits or initiate events. Major nations (and DLC expanded countries) have their own unique focus tree, while other countries share a generic one.

Ideas

Main article: Ideas

Political power is spent to manage the government via ideas. These take the form of laws, ministers, and companies. Enacting or removing an idea costs political power, with adding an idea usually costing 150.

Commanders

Main article: Commander

Political power may be used to produce new commanders for use in commanding divisions. The cost scales with the amount of commanders the player already has, starting at a cost of 5 and increasing by 5 for each additional commander. Naval commanders are bought with the same system, and at the same rate as the field commanders.

Diplomacy

Main article: Diplomacy

Political Power is needed for several diplomatic interactions, including justifying war, guaranteeing independence, or improving relations.

Justifying for a province using the Conquest casus belli costs 50 political power, increasing by 5 if justifying on a country with the Neutral Foreign Policy national spirit. Each state added to the Conquest justification increases the cost by 10 political power. Justifying using the Retake core state casus belli costs 25 political power.

A guarantee of independence costs 25 political power and increases by that much for each subsequent guarantee (first justification is 25 political power, second justification is 50 political power, etc.).

Improving relations is initiated at the cost of 10 political power, and costs a base rate of .2 political power per day for a country with a matching ideology. If the improving relations action is taken with the target being a separate ideology, the cost per day is 0.4 political power. For example, if  Germany was improving relations with fascist  Italy it would cost .2 political power per day, but improving relations with the democratic  United Kingdom would cost .4 political power per day.

Decisions

Decisions act as a middle ground between national focuses and events. The outcomes vary between instantaneous or timed effects.

The decisions tab is accessible by clicking the gavel icon in the top bar, or by pressing Shift+Q.

Ideology

Main article: Ideology

The player's government type is defined by their country leader and their ideology.

Elections

Elections occur in most Democracies and some Non-Aligned countries, along with  Paraguay(),  El Salvador() and  Peru() at the start of the game. Communist  United States, communist/fascist  Mexico, fascist  Poland, and  Communist China can have elections via their national focus. The length of time between an election depends on the country, ranging from one to eight years between elections.

The player can see when the next election will be under the politics or diplomacy tabs. Elections enable the player to change power to other ideologies without violence. If a party has above 50% popularity during an election, they will win it and become the new ruling party. Elections can also trigger some other Election events. The  United States,  Spain, and  Greece have unique election events due to their elections creating a national affair.

National spirit

Main article: National spirit

National spirits are special ideas which apply bonuses and/or maluses. These ideas can be gained through the nation's focus tree or via certain event chains.

While many of these are nation specific there are also some which are more generic in nature and can apply to more than one nation (such as those in the generic focus tree).

Stability

Stability is expressed as a percentage from 0% to 100%, and represents the people's support for the current government. Stability has various effects. At high stability, the nation receives production bonuses. At low stability, various crises can ravage the nation. Details below.

Stability above 50% gives the following bonuses, which scale linearly from none at 50% to the full amount at 100%. At 100% stability, the bonuses are:

• +10% political power gain
• +20% factory output
• +20% dockyard output
• -5% consumer goods

Stability below 50% gives the following penalties, which scale linearly from none at 50% to the full amount at 0%. At 0% stability, the penalties are:

• -20% political power gain
• -50% factory output
• -50% dockyard output

Further, stability affects resistance targets in occupied territories from 0% at 100% up to +20% at 0%.

The effect of stability is rounded down to the nearest integer. For example, 81.6% stability results in the same bonus as 81.0% and both are displayed as 81%. The game internally stores stability to a higher precision.

If the player is at war, low stability may cause a crisis up to a civil war.

Stability is calculated by adding permanent stability modifiers on top of base stability. Base stability ranges from 0% to 100% and can be modified by various events, national focuses, and decisions (such as Improved Worker Conditions). It cannot be increased further once it reaches 100% (and vice versa).

Permanent stability modifiers are then applied additively to base stability. If the total stability goes over 100% (or below 0%) then the stability effect is capped at 100%. However, the additional stability from permanent modifiers will not be lost and can be counted as a buffer against negative stability modifiers.

The following are stability modifiers:

• -20% being at war.
• -0-30% from war support. Scales from 0% at 100% war support to -30% at 0% war support.
• +0-15% popularity of the ruling party's ideology. Scales from 0% at 0% popularity to 15% at 100% popularity.
• +0-15% having Officer Corps - Army Command - Spirit of the Academy - Political Loyalty - Party Popularity Stability Modifier. Scales from 0% at 0% popularity to 15% at 100% popularity. (This spirit doubles the effect from party popularity)
• +15% having "Popular Figurehead" ruler trait or political advisor (both can be stacked together)
• +60% ruler-modifier for  Japan only

This means that with sufficient permanent modifiers to stability, the total stability of a nation may never reach 100%. This is the case with most countries; by having 100% base stability, 100% party ideology popularity (gives +15% stability modifier) and being at war (gives -20% stability modifier), a country's total stability will be sitting at 95% and cannot be increased by increasing base stability (because base stability already reaches 100%) and requires either further positive stability modifiers or ending the ongoing war (which removes the -20% stability modifier) to reach 100% stability.

War support

War support is expressed as a percentage from 0% to 100%, and represents the willingness of the population to endure the privations of war. Various laws and national focuses can only be enacted if war support is at a sufficient level.

War support above 50% will give up to the following benefits:

• +30% mobilization speed
• 10% army attack and defense on core territory
• +50% command power gain

War support below 50% will give up to the following penalties:

• -50% mobilization speed
• -95% command power gain
• -30% surrender limit
• may cause a crisis while at war

War support can be changed through the following actions:

• -20% being in an offensive war
• +10% sending an attaché
• +5% Having a pride of fleet

Nation leaders

Main article: Political parties and leaders

Each nation has a leader. This leader depends on which party is in power and the leader of said party. Most leaders are only flavor and have no effect on the game while some leaders have AI modifiers and/or certain bonuses and/or penalties.

Footnotes

Mechanics

Events and Decisions

Events • Decisions