Government

You get a 20% bonus to economy for each rung up the government ladder you go. However, keeping your party in control of the senate becomes more difficult with each gov't advance. To tell the truth after I get the first upgrade (federation?) , I don't go any higher, and find I don't usually have a problem keeping my party in the senate, or problems with the economy. Maybe I'm missing out on more money, but I like my party bonuses.

Monarchy (default) -> Republic -> Democracy -> Federation

Once again, this is one of those blind guesses you have to make when playing. OK, it increases economy 20% for each step, (I assume that is a guess, not developer-verified), but how do the governments affect morale? Without knowing it, it is impossible to know whether it is reasonable to switch or to stay.

Just my vote to Stardock: publish the basic game mechanics info, for me making such blind decisions is a game-killer.

Also everytime you go up a level in Govt, Moral become harder to control. So if you have a decent Economy and dont need the 20% bonus, its sometimes wise not to step up.

Your Planets have more chance of defecting on higher Govts it seems too.

~SDC~

The 20% Economic boost is verified.
There also seems to be some kind of manufacturing boost,
but I have not actually verified.

Also, I have never experienced a loss of Morale
after switching governments. The only disadvantage
that I've seen is that the Morale level required to
win an election goes up as you improve your
government. (And of course the chance that a low
morale planet defects increases).

Lossing an election is of course a serious setback.
Additionally, it seems that (as with most bonuses)
the Economic bonus is +20% of base economy as
opposed to +20% of current economy. (That is,
If you already have a +X% bonus to economy from
other sources (galactic resources, etc ...)
changing government puts you at a +(X+20)% bonus
as opposed to a (20 + 1.2*X)% bonus). This means
that if you already have a lot of economic bonuses
the economic benefit of changing government is
reduced.

Personally, I tend to stay at Republic unless
(A) I need more manufacturing capacity because I'm
running my economy at 100% Spending and still showing
a surplus (B) I haven't been able to acquire any
economic resources or build the Galactic
Stock Exchange

- Matt Lepinski :->

Thank you i clime the gov tree but thats just my poly sci background

~SDC~

I think the manufacturing (including research) boost is also 20%. I think I read it somewhere.

~SDC~

In order to save money, I'm trying not to build hardly any social improvements on my outlying planets. With the starting racial pick bonus to morale, I can change my government to Republic and still keep those outlying colonies without any morale boosters greater than equal to 50%. But when I change my government to Democracy, they all drop to below 50% and start defecting on me like crazy. Of course, I'll readily admit that I'm still just a beginner and may be missing quite a lot.