One of my favorite parts of CivIV is the civics system. The old single choice government options of CivII and CivIII were bland and lacked the nuance of both historical and modern institutional arrangements. What does it mean to be just a “Democracy”? Blah! Lame! Ancient Athens was a “Democracy”… with a slave based economy and strictly enforced misogynist public sphere. The civics system allows for such specificity and tailoring of game type. For that, I say three cheers.
However, after my initial joy and wonder wore off, I noticed there was still much that could be done to improve the system with little effort. A Civic Synergy Mod is one such proposal. As a social institutionalist, it strikes me as kind of strange that a society can adopt both Slavery and Universal Suffrage without some amount of collective cognitive dissonance. A penalty for such ridiculousness would seem appropriate.
However, as the good people at Firaxis found out regarding “Dark Ages”, few gamers like the idea of a negative “penalty” for their game decisions. Appropriately I adopted the idea to a more positive “bonus” for cohesive civic choices. Rather then upset civilizations who like to run Pacifism and Police State at the same time, I think it would be a good idea to give synergistic rewards to civilizations that run ideological consistant combinations.
I don’t consider this to be a groundbreaking idea. The idea that Pacifism and Caste System or Theology and Vassalage can be combined for good measure has occurred to any one who has played the game. Appropriately I don’t take any real credit for this proposal. I would like this to be a group effort of brainstorming, critique and fun. Having said that, I will now get the ball rolling with some examples and hopefully the idea will become clear. Feel free to add your own combos or criticisms. I’m sure many of these bonuses would be considered under or over powered. People seem to like debating that.
I am not a modder and I have only limited experience in editing the XML files of the game. Accordingly, if this idea is to come to light it would take a little bit of elbow grease from any of our extremely talented modders here in the CivFanatics community. Anyone interested can feel free to PM me or simply post your intent in this thread. I know the game will change a lot with the release of BtS but I simply couldn’t wait any longer in discussing this idea.

3 Category Civic Combos

Gov’t Legal Labor Econ. Religion
Name / Bonus:

“GodKing”:
Hereditary Rule -*any*- Slavery -*any*- Organized Religion
+ 25% :hammers: from Whipping

“Manorialism”:
Hereditary Rule Vassalage Serfdom -*any*- -*any*-
Farms produce: + 1 :commerce:

“Legalism”:
Representation Bureaucracy Caste System -*any*- -*any*-
Courthouses produce: +1 :science: +1 :gold: +1 :culture:

“National Corporatism”:
Police State Nationhood -*any*- State Property -*any*-
Any tile producing 3 :hammers: produces an additional +1 :hammers:

“Liberalism”:
-*any*- Free Speech -*any*- Free Market Free Religion
Libraries, Universities and Laboratories produce +2 :science:

2 Category Civic Combos

Gov’t Legal Labor Econ. Religion
Name / Bonus:

“Protectionism”
-*any*- Nationhood -*any*- Mercantilism -*any*-
All resource tiles produce + 2 :commerce:

“Pan Theologica” (e.g. the Caliphates or Christendom)
-*any*- Bureaucracy -*any*- -*any*- Theocracy
In cities with state religion: +1 XP to new troops and +1 :) from religion appropriate resource. E.g. Incense, Dye etc.

“Populism”
Representation Free Speech -*any*- -*any*- -*any*-
+10 :hammers: in all cities

“Preservationism”
-*any*- -*any*- -*any*- Environmentalism Pacifism
For every extra :health: in a city, +1 :)

“Enfranchisement”
Universal Suffrage -*any*- Emancipation -*any*- -*any*-
Towns produce +1 :commerce: