Political Capital

Political capital is a government's room to act: the goodwill, favors and authority it can spend on changing the country. Nearly every deliberate political move draws on it, from passing a law and pursuing a national focus to suppressing a faction or running a diplomatic mission. You never have enough to do everything, so the main political decision is always what to do first.

Where it comes from

Political capital comes from the Factions that back your government. Each faction has its own rule for how far it backs the current government, from none at all to full backing. That rule depends on who governs, which laws are in force and how the faction is doing. Each day, every faction adds its effective influence times its backing to your income.

• A government held up by a powerful, loyal faction earns far more than one resting on a shaky coalition of minor groups.
• Alienating a major faction costs you political capital every day, not just its goodwill.
• The faction screen and the Political Capital tooltip list every faction's current backing and contribution.

The income from factions is capped at 3 a day. National modifiers (Political Capital Gain) from laws, traits, International Organizations and events are added on top and can push the daily total above that cap. Some examples from the 1946 laws:

The daily amount is recalculated as soon as anything it depends on changes: your laws, modifiers, organization memberships, ruling party or faction standings.

Limits

• A country starts the 1946 campaign with 5 political capital.
• The balance is capped at 200. Income beyond that is lost.
• There is no floor. Required costs, such as upkeep, are charged even if you can't afford them, so the balance can go negative.

Reforms and focuses are an exception. They only charge political capital on days you can pay, and a day you can't pay simply makes no progress.

What it is spent on

What makes reforms cheaper or dearer

A reform's daily cost moves with the politics around it:

• If the ruling party prefers the new law, it costs 25% less a day and goes 25% faster. If the party has a preference in that policy set and you pick a different option, it costs 50% more and takes 50% longer.
• Influential, agitated factions that oppose a reform drive its cost up. Calm, influential supporters bring it down.
• A minority government pays 25% more for every reform.

Reform speed (Political Reform Speed) is separate from cost. It shortens the time a reform takes, so the total you pay falls as well. Martial law makes reforms run four times as fast.

Sequencing

Because income is capped, piling every reform into the same month doesn't work. Typical trade-offs:

• Running a focus and two reforms at once triples your daily spending. Your balance falls quickly and everything stalls together.
• Keeping a reserve lets you react to a crisis, an election-time decision or an opportunity abroad.
• Winning over a powerful faction, or adding a law that pays political capital, raises your income for the rest of the game.

The AI follows the same logic. It starts a reform only when it has at least 90 political capital in reserve, scaled down for reforms that already have a head start. It starts a national focus only with at least 25 on hand.