How/where can I edit a civics name and the effects it does?

You can change effects in the Civ4CivicInfos XML file found here:

Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Assets\XML\GameInfo

You can also change the name there by overwriting the TXT_KEY, but a better way is finding the Text XMl file and changing what the TXT_KEY tag is.

Option 1 would be changing this:

<Description>TXT_KEY_CIVIC_DESPOTISM</Description>

to

<Description>New civic name</Description>.

This is fine is you only are worried about 1 language ever being used.

Option 2 would require you to change DEPOTISM to NEWCIVIC and then setting the TXT_KEY_CIVIC_NEWCIVIC to saying New Civic in a Text file.

Sorry if this makes little sense, but it's easy to do once you dig into it. Just don't change your core files.

Thank you very much! I have just changed a couple things using the description idea! Very nice! I am combining the XX Century mod with my new ideas! Thank you for helping me with this!