It is time to continue our four-part mini-series on the different socio-economic groups you will take control over in Hegemony. For the last part, let us turn towards the state:

From early dynastic Egypt over the famous Greek city-states to the modern nation-states of today – The state as a political order accompanied humanity for the last 5000 years. And although this is a small fraction of mankind´s entire historic existence, its implementation profoundly shaped our understanding of the organization of social groups. Nowadays, almost every individual on this earth is a national of a state which underlines the significance of these structures. At the same time, however, there is no undisputed definition of a state as there is a vast range of state forms that differ in terms of governance, structure, and ideology.

In Hegemony, the player takes control over the government/state of a parliamentary democracy. Therefore, as the populace elected you as a representative, the main factor you will have to keep an eye out is your legitimacy: Keep the other classes happy by focusing on their needs and providing them with services such as education programs or stimulus checks or even influence their opinion through directed media campaigns and you will be awarded with their approval and, hence, an abundance of victory points. Fail to keep a certain class happy (or all of them) and you will pave the road to your demise. Another important way of keeping your administration´s legitimacy is to adequately react towards external events which will randomly occur each round. If, for example, the nation is struck by a pandemic, it would be very wise by the state to mobilize its resources towards the healthcare system, otherwise, it will be regarded as failing its population. The second important building block of the state are fiscal matters. Although the state earns taxes from the other players and can create public companies which, if filled with workers, will create goods and services which can be bought or sold, it still has to pay wages for public workers and provide a financial pillow for external events which will require increased spending. Otherwise, if your treasury runs out of money, you will be forced to consult the International Monetary Fund which will lead to a drastic decrease of the state´s legitimacy throughout all classes.  Additionally, you can also exert your political influence in the parliament (for example, through the governing party) and shift the state´s ideological alignment. While, for example, certain players will be very interested in free healthcare, you will have to keep a close eye on your budget!

Taxes, wages, public companies, treasury, legitimacy, external events, and so on… in this post, we elaborated the main things the state´s player has to take into consideration. If he or she manages to keep everybody happy and evade a sovereign default, then victory is near!

Now, while we tried to give you a general understanding of the different roles in this mini-series, we realize that certain things can only be understood by playing the final product. That is why we are working hard on the final touches of the game and prepared a few surprises for the next weeks. Soon, the time for Hegemony will be here!