The Senate is an empire's governing body, and allows players to pass laws related to Political Parties that have gained enough representation in your Empire.
Parties and Support:[]
The player's actions throughout the Galaxy, as well as the Population's tendencies, determine the level of support a political party receives. Systems that support political parties that do not have representation in the Senate will have a major penalty to approval. If the approval drops low enough, systems might go into revolt, potentially leading to Anarchy and political revolution for the unrepresented party, which forces the Government into a Dictatorship.
Parties that are in the senate gradually earn experience which, as time goes on, unlocks higher-tier laws for the party with more powerful effects.
Laws:[]
The primary purpose of political parties is enabling "Laws" - your empire is allowed to enact a small number of laws, and the available laws are provided by the parties in the senate; the different parties have dramatically different effects, and without a given party in the senate, you have no access to their laws. Laws provide an empire-wide bonus of some kind, at the cost of a constant drain of 
Influence per 
Population on your Empire. There are also a collection of "Independent" laws with no party affiliation, which typically have no Influence cost, but carry a malus as well as a bonus.
The leading political party will enact an automatic forced law (sometimes referred to as a "power law"), which takes up a single law slot, but costs no Influence. It is "forced" in the sense that you're not allowed to remove it and free up the slot for something else.
Elections[]
Every 20 turns (on Normal speed), an election will take place, determining which political parties are represented in your senate and what "Representatives" will sit in each of your systems.
Mechanics:[]
On Election Day (at the end of turn), the election process starts with the results from the latest survey. This survey is purposefully not 100% accurate with your population's true political support. Your populations political support will also not fully correspond to voting results.
In this first stage of the election (shown in image below) all government types are allowed to influence the election outcome to various extent through "Election Actions" (with the extreme case of a Dictatorship/Autocracy being able to just select a ruling party by fiat).
The second stage/screen of the election shows the votes of each of your systems, represented through "Representatives". If your government is a Democracy or Republic the number of "Representatives" each of your systems will have is equal to that system's number of population, but in the case of Autocracy, Dictatorship or Federation governments the number of "Representatives" become (1 + (3 x System Level)).
The choice of political party these "Representatives" are affiliated with is determined by odds based on the population's political support!
A developer states:
"... for each Representative, it will randomly pick a politics to vote for, based on the support of the politics. [...] If there are several votes to cast at once, the ones that aren't randomly selected become slightly more likely to be selected next, so that there are more chances of getting a balanced system."[1]
"Representatives" are therefore not directly chosen by your population's political support, but by random chance following odds weighted accordingly to your population's political support. Under "Political Trends", bars to the different parties then get filled up by the number of their "Representatives" (votes). The winning parties of the Political Trends then move to the next stage.
In this stage, a last determining calculation is made to the winning parties. Here, the votes of the losing parties are taken into account and redistributed between the winning parties, as seen by hovering over the small political party symbols around the winner portrait's voting bar. This can therefore completely change the winners' rankings from the "Political Trends".
The losers' votes are redistributed according to their alignment in the politics wheel seen in the Population Overview, prioritizing their votes to their closest political neighbors (this means that if for example Pacifists lose and Science and Religion wins, the Pacifists votes from the "Political Trends" go to Science).
Government types[]
Democracy[]
Effects:[]
- 3 parties represented
- +1
Approval per Population - -10% Influence cost of enacted laws for each party represented in the Senate (maximum)
- Can only provide "Official Support" to one party as a means of influencing elections
- -50% influence cost to pass a new law
- +1 law slot on senate
- +1 additional law slot on senate in Empire Development Technology Stage 5 (in addition to the normal +1 all governments gain, then)
Synopsis:[]
Democracy has the upside of supporting 3 parties, which has several benefits. It allows you a flexible spread of laws, covering a variety of potential needs (be they food gain, industry boosts, approval boosts, etc). It also, by having 3 parties in the senate, allows three parties to simultaneously "level up", meaning you progress to having higher tier laws more quickly with them (if the political party receives continual support) and also allowing up to 3 Heroes to be a senators at the same time to receive senator bonuses. Finally, with 3 parties in power, it markedly reduces the penalty received by having "no representation in senate" for a system's political beliefs (due to some quirks of statistics, because political affiliations in ES2 are affected by events in the game, increasing the coverage from 1->2 or 2->3 boosts this far more so than one might expect, since the final few parties are typically parties with very little support).
Democracy also has an additional law slot (2 in the extreme lategame), which makes it the government that can enact the most laws at the same time - in the extreme lategame, they're allowed the full 6 slots, whereas other governments have 4 (or in the case of the Cravers' Autocracy, 5).
The other significant benefit of Democracy is the modest +1 
Approval per Population.
The downside of Democracy is you have very little ability to influence how an election will turn out. If a certain law is critical to your strategy (say, a food law for the UC, or an industry law for the Sophons), and the party's support is a bit shaky, Democracy gives you almost no leverage to keep that party in power.
Democracy Election Actions:[]
- Official Support - internally applies 10
PlayerActionBonusand 5PlayerActionBonusWeightModifier - No others
Republic[]
Effects:[]
- 2 parties represented
- Laws provide better effects and/or other bonuses (usually)
- Can influence elections with Dust
Synopsis:[]
The main draw of a Republic is twofold. First, the ability to influence elections with 
Dust rather than the Influence cost that Federation has — dust tends to be vastly easier to come by. Influencing an election does not provide a guarantee that you'll get the results you paid for (you may pay an enormous sum and get nothing), but it is at least a strong push in that direction.
Second, the "laws provide better effects" aspect. Most laws under a republic are often 33% to 100% stronger, or provide entirely new effects which are otherwise nonexistent in other governments. The one other government which shares a similar trait is Dictatorship/Autocracy, which does a stronger version of the same idea, but only applies it to the forced/power law for a party.
The downside of Republic is that it simply offers no other bonuses on its own, outside of its law effects.
Republic Election Actions:[]
- Official Support - internally applies 10
PlayerActionBonusand 5PlayerActionBonusWeightModifier - Primary Elections - reduces support for other parties by applying, internally -50
PlayerActionBonusand -30PlayerActionBonusWeightModifier - Lobbying - increases support for the selected party by applying, internally 100
PlayerActionBonusand 40PlayerActionBonusWeightModifier
Federation[]
Effects:[]
- 2 parties represented
- +1 system before Overcolonization penalty per Hero Representing the current ruling political parties on Empire
- Can influence elections with Influence
- -20% system luxury development cost
Synopsis:[]
The main attraction of Federation is "going wide"; particularly if you're able to snag a few extra heroes of your current political parties, it pushes back the point at which you start to have approval problems, considerably. Overcolonization isn't the only source of approval problems, but because it's in any 4x player's interest to expand as far and as fast as possible, all players will quickly make it their number-one approval problem.
Like Democracy, Federations are attractive as a tool to fight Disapproval; to conceptualize the difference, Democracy has to "pay back" a deficit of disapproval, whereas Federation makes that deficit lower to begin with. Particularly - each additional system of 
Overcolonization induces an additional -10 Approval. In order to be even with Federation, a Democracy will need to either have at least 10 pop units, and/or eliminate at least 10 unhappiness that would be present Federation due to the "political parties no represented in senate" malus.
As a small bonus, Federations also reduce the system-development luxury cost; this often isn't significant but it's a nice little unique bonus that synergizes with wanting to settle "wide".
The downside of Federation is that it does not offer any bonus to law effects or law slots; like Republic, it dodges the significant malus Dictatorship gets to law choices and slots, but unlike Republic or Dictatorship, it doesn't have intensified law effects to compensate for the lower overall number of law slots.
By costing Influence, the election actions for a Federation will generally be far out of reach for most factions (with the exception of a few unusual ones like the Unfallen). They do the same things as the actions for the Republic, but cost a different resource. As with the republic, they're a strong shove in a given direction, but they're no guarantee that the outcome will go your way.
Federation Election Actions:[]
- Official Support - internally applies 10
PlayerActionBonusand 5PlayerActionBonusWeightModifier - Intimidate Citizens - reduces support for other parties by applying, internally -50
PlayerActionBonusand -30PlayerActionBonusWeightModifier - Imperial Support - increases support for the selected party by applying, internally 100
PlayerActionBonusand 40PlayerActionBonusWeightModifier
Dictatorship[]
Effects:[]
- 1 party represented
- Can directly choose ruling party at elections
- Systems rebel at Unhappy instead of Mutinous
- x1.5 senator skill effect on Hero
- Pillaging/Razing systems will not incur approval penalty.
- The "power/forced law" has bigger effect and/or other bonuses
- A "Propaganda system project" will be present on all player systems that will gradually improve support for the chosen political party.
Synopsis:[]
Dictatorship has a few unique benefits; the obvious one is the absolute guarantee that, no matter what, the party you want will win the election, period — this means that: One of the biggest reasons to go for a Dictatorship is to guarantee the availability of certain laws with powerful effects. The obvious one you'll get even at the start of the game is the "power/forced law" associated with a certain party, and you're likely to also have access to their tier 1 and 2 laws throughout most of the game. Dictatorship further tries to sweeten the deal by giving some minor additional bonuses on this "power/forced law" - they will often either amplify the bonus given by Republic, or add a new bonus entirely.
Since there are so few "power/forced" laws, it's worth considering them (and to a lesser degree, the likely tier-1/2 laws) explicitly here:
- Ecologist — If you've got several core systems with uncolonizable (non-gas) planets, this can skirt around the tech requirements and let you put off researching the required techs by a long amount of time. Being able to colonize all 4 or 5 planets in a great core system is a huge boost to 'economic booming'. The tier 1/2 laws from the party massively double down on Food income.
- Industrialist — The industrialist power law is very weak and not worth it in and of itself. The tier 2 law, once you have access to it actually gives a quite solid boost to Industry and strategic-resource generation, though.
- Militarist — This allows you to declare war with no cost in Influence, and also gives you an Approval bonus per active war you have going. The first two law tiers make ships cheaper, and give you Dust/Science bounties for destroying enemy ships (as well as an empire-wide Upkeep bonus). This party choice is a straightforward buy-in on pure aggression.
- Pacifist — This allows you to force peace on an opponent. As a tool to stave off aggression, this is somewhat ineffectual, since the opponent simply has to pay an Influence cost to tear down your forced peace and declare war on you. However, as a tool to make long-term friends, this is surprisingly effective against the AI - if you actually follow up the forced peace by a period of good-faith behavior, most AI personalities will transition into the same sort of "we've been friends for a long time and trust you" stance they would under normal peace agreements. The upside of this is that many skeptical AI opponents will require a quite steep payout in resources to make a regular peace agreement, but this costs only Influence. There are some decent Approval and Dust gains from having the party in force.
- Religious — This one lets you invade opponents without formally declaring war on them; because of how the AI is programmed to react, it will likely lead to to a declaration of war if you choose to occupy a system rather than pillaging it. It can be worthwhile as a way to save Influence costs, especially since it gives a modest per-pop bonus to Influence as well. Under a dictatorship, this gives a bonus to hero XP as well, which can stack with a tier-2 religious law for a fairly good hero XP boost (+65%).
- Scientist — This one lets you research techs from an era past the current one you've unlocked, as well as giving a decent boost to research speed. If there's a real game-changer tech you're gunning for, this could be worth it. The scientist party can also, in early tiers, give a solid boost to system-improvement Industry cost, and ship movement speed.
Another fringe benefit of Dictatorship is the "Propaganda system project" - every system can enact a project which, like the projects which convert industry into dust/science, ties up the system's production queue. Each of these will provide a modest resource boost (the Ecologist propaganda will provide a +20% boost to 
Food on the system), but, uniquely, they will also "gradually increase support" for that political ideology. This is a rather weak effect (it struggles to fight against the natural political inclinations of the population, rather than steamrolling over it), but there are very few tools which allow you to directly affect political support; there are a few rare quests that require a certain amount of political party support (e.g. the Sophon's Militarist quest branch), and these can help induce that support to clear the quest requirements. Because these propaganda projects tie up the system's entire production queue, they're a very debatable value proposition, but they are a unique tool that no other governments have access to.
Yet another benefit of Dictatorship is that Pillaging and Raiding systems does not give any approval Approval hit. Pillaging can give surprisingly good resource gains (particularly of strategic resources), but it's often not worth it versus occupying the system directly, because the global approval hit (5 turns of either -10 Approval for Pillage or -15 Approval for Raze) is similar enough to just taking the system for yourself that you may as well take the system and reap the increased resource gain.
The biggest downside of Dictatorship is that with only 1 political party represented, the versatility of passable laws is extremely limited; you're only able to pass laws from the party you chose to support, and from the pool of "independent laws". Furthermore, Dictatorship will be the government that takes the most disapproval hit from having parties that have "no representation in senate", since you're facing 5 parties that meet that criterion (rather than 4, or even 3 under democracy).
Another downside of Dictatorship is that, because you have only one political party represented, you have only one hero that can be a Senator (thus, applying their 'as senator' hero skill bonuses) in your government, rather than 2, or 3. Dictatorship was given a special bonus to help offset this inherent malus - the senator you do have will get a 1.5x bonus to their skills, but it ends up being a net downside in spite of this.
A mixed downside/upside of Dictatorship is that your systems will rebel when they are "unhappy" instead of "mutinous". This has some odd implications - when a system is in a state of impending rebellion, it unlocks an otherwise unavailable action where you can spend some luxury resources to give the system a temporary +25 Approval boost. The critical thing here is that (regardless of your government), your approval rating on a system acts as a multiplier against your Food and Influence values - Dictatorship is able to do it in a bracket that raises your food levels enough that you will likely be able to prevent starvation/stagnation. Under other governments, this action is only available when you're in the "mutinous" bracket, which means a system is producing 25% of it's nominal Food and Influence values, and bribing the rebellion there will bring you up to the "unhappy" bracket, which gives you 50% Food and Influence. But in a dictatorship, this option will be available to systems that are merely "unhappy", which means you can raise them back to "content" (i.e. from 50% back to 100% Food and Influence). Relying on this is a bit shaky, because there's no guarantee that the populace will demand access to a luxury resource you even are able to gift them, but it is a unique source of quite a bit of Approval that can spot-fix problem systems.
Dictatorship Election Actions:[]
- Under a Dictatorship, you're allowed to watch the population vote for various parties. However, in spite of their votes, whichever party you chose to support overrides their choice, and is appointed as the new ruling party. It's worth observing the results to gauge potential unhappiness impacts.
Autocracy[]
[]
- 1 party represented
- Directly choose ruling party at elections
- x1.5 senator skill effect on Hero
- Pillaging/Razing systems will not incur approval penalty.
- The "Power/Forced Law" has bigger effect and/or other bonuses
- A "Propaganda system improvement" will be present on all player systems that will gradually improve support for the chosen political party.
Additional Effects:[]
- Only the major population can vote (this is a bit misleading in that it counts the original starting population rather than the major population, it also means non-original population cannot have political influence)
- Anarchy is impossible (meaning that rebellion can't happen, it also means that government type can't be changed through rebellion)
- Cannot change government type
- +1 law slot on senate
Synopsis:[]
Autocracy is a special government type given to the Cravers to reflect their extremely unusual society - specifically the fact that rather than peacefully coexisting with other populations, they enslave them and eat them. Needless to say, their livestock are completely politically disenfranchised.
Besides having all the benefits of Dictatorship with an immunity to a few maluses thereof, it also means Cravers are unable to switch governments, and thus are fairly limited in their political options during the game.
Autocracy can be given as a faction trait to custom factions, allowing them to have a similar playstyle.
Autocracy Election Actions:[]
- Exactly like under a Dictatorship, you simply pick which party is going to win, and it does.
Law slots per type of government[]
- Democracy and Autocracy starts with 1 additional Law slot over other governments.
- All governments gain 1 Law slot upon reaching Stage 3 Empire Development.
- All governments gain their final Law slot upon reaching Stage 5 Empire Development. Democracy government will gain 2 additional law slots instead of 1.
| Empire development stage | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type of governement | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Democracy | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 6 |
| Republic | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| Federation | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| Dictatorship | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| Autocracy | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 |
Switching Governments[]
After you research the tier 3 Empire Development technology "Xeno Anthropology", you can switch governments. To do so, you need at least 50% empire happiness , as well as some influence . The amount of influence needed depends on the number of colonized systems you have, and also what government type you want to switch to.
Upon switching a government, you will endure 5 turns (on normal speed) of "Anarchy". During anarchy you will not receive the malus of "no political representation on senate", but you will be able to pass no laws, and all current laws will be revoked. Anarchy will also lock all of the slots for political parties, which also effectively prevents Heroes Senate bonuses and the bonus of "having representation on senate".
Rebellion[]
Anarchy will also be forcibly induced if your empire is in a state of rebellion, and this rebellion reaches a certain peak level.
When this happens, it will forcibly alter your government type. Typically, this will turn you into a Dictatorship, with a political affiliation of the opposite of your current leading political party. If you are already a Dictatorship, it will instead turn you into a Democracy.
An identical effect can be induced by hacking an opponent's home/primary system.
Autocracy[]
"Autocracy" cannot switch to another government. Notably - this includes both willful choices by the player (to manually try to switch), and also includes involuntary switches via rebellion and hacking.
Political Parties[]
Laws[]
The upkeep cost of a law for each non-independent law is equal to its level. Independent laws and forced/power laws have no upkeep cost.
The number in parenthesis (%) represents the law effect with a republic government.
The number in closed brackets {%} represents the law effect with a dictatorship/autocracy government.
| Law | Party | Level | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Super Tax Act |  |
1 |
|
| Cram Exam Act (Hi Sci Act) |
|
1 (3 for Republic) |
|
| Toys for Boys Decree | |
1 |
|
| Hissho Holiday Act (Hissho only) |
|
1 | Replaces Toys for Boys Decree
|
| Hatched at Home (Hissho only) |
|
1 |
|
| Brains over Bucks | |
2 (1 for Republic) |
|
| Larger Hosts Bill | |
3 (2 for Republic) |
|
| Senator Bob Act (Democracy, Republic and Federation governments) |
|
3 |
|
| Safe Skies Bill (Autocracy and Dictatorship governments) |
|
3 | Replaces Senator Bob Act
|
| Tombs and Trinkets (Hissho only) |
|
3 | Replaces Senator Bob Act
|
| Parks not Quarks (Democracy, Republic and Federation governments) |
|
4 |
|
| Wartime Taxes Bill (Autocracy and Dictatorship governments) |
|
4 | Replaces Parks not Quarks
|
| Dust Windfall |  |
Power |
|
| New Colony Rule | |
1 |
|
| Core Vessels Order (Vodyani only) | |
1 | Replaces New Colony Rule
|
| Bits to Bites (Umbral Choir Only) |
|
1 | Replaces New Colony Rule
|
| Mineral Misers Act | |
2 |
|
| Fleet Fortitude Decree | |
3 |
|
| Work Not Shirk Act | |
4 |
|
| Oracle Of Science |  |
Power |
|
| Dirty Hands Act | |
1 |
|
| Star Boogie Bill | |
2 |
|
| Need to Breed Bill | |
3 |
|
| Victory Gardening (Vaulters only) | |
3 |
|
| Mine's Bigger Decree | |
4 |
|
| Right Thing Rule |  |
Power |
|
| Trusted Broker | |
1 |
|
| Make Love Not War Rule | |
2 |
|
| Tools and Fools (Hissho) |
|
2 | Replaces Make Love Not War
|
| My Precious Precept | |
3 |
|
| Fair Trade Bill | |
4 |
|
| Hardship Ready |  |
Power |
|
| Green Fertility Bill | |
1 |
|
| Cool Copies Clause | |
2 |
|
| Umbral Anglers (Umbral Choir only) |
|
2 | Replaces Cool Copies Clause
|
| Power to the People Act | |
3 |
|
| Backdoor Boon (Umbral Choir only) |
|
3 | Replaces Power to the People
|
| All Hands Dictum | |
4 |
|
| Elite Shadows (Umbral Choir only) |
|
4 | Replaces All Hands Dictum
|
| Righteous Fury |  |
Power |
|
| Species Stability Act | |
1 |
|
| Dust and Grub (Umbral Choir only) |
|
1 | Replaces Species Stability Act
|
| Admit and Improve Bill | |
2 |
|
| Saints & Sinners Bill | |
3 |
|
| Gods and Monsters (Hissho only) |
|
3 | Replaces Saints and Sinners
|
| Peace and Prayer Act | |
4 |
|
| Nightshifters (Umbral Choir only) |
|
4 | Replaces Peace and Prayer Act
|
| Jingoist Joy Bill |  |
Power |
|
| Jingoist Joy Bill (Hissho version) |
|
Power | Replaces Jingoist Joy Bill
|
| Lower Fleet Costs Rule | |
1 |
|
| Spoils Of War Act | |
2 |
|
| Us or Them Decree | |
3 |
|
| Us or Them (Hissho version) |
|
3 | Replaces Us or Them Decree
|
| Deadly Intent Bill | |
4 |
|
