Some notes on civics in general (based on whichever C2C version I downloaded on July 28th, if civics have been updated since then, I apologize):
1. In most cases I have placed a focus on realism over balance, the only cases were I placed any focus on balance is in the cases that civics should be almost useless compared to alternatives but are popular and therefore frequently enacted. In some cases were these civics have been known to increase unemployment, I have stayed clear from giving them happiness modifiers.
2. I have removed any beaker penalty in late game civics. While the argument that some civics would reduce science and innovation, one cannot argue that a more primitive civic would be better for science. The easiest example is Oral Tradition, by default any civic that comes after that should be better for science (one can’t argue that going from Propaganda to Oral would increase tech rate), and by default would have to have the same if not better tech rate.
3. I’m a conservative with some minor libertarian leanings. I will freely acknowledge that I have a bias towards civics that I would personally support.
4. I expect to get a lot of criticism for some of my views, but feel free to post any. I am always open to changes.
5. For the most part I will be avoiding hard numbers in the explanation, while I have already given hard numbers to my civics xml sheet in game; I support slight changes for the purpose of balance. I also admit that my changes will due to commerce, maintenance, beaker and production changes, affect the rate at which technology can develop. Thus my changes have increased tech development during certain eras and decrease them during others. I have not (nor will I) change the costs of techs to reflect these changes, so it may be more appropriate for my numbers to be changed to be more in line with historical production and tech rates.
6. If I don’t mention an effect that is currently present it means I want to keep it. On the other hand if I mention an effect that’s already present, it means make further changes (eg. Increase Maintenance means further increase the maintenance penalty).
Government:
7. Near the end I got bored of writing out long explanations, if you have any questions feel free to ask.
Government
Anarchism: I strongly disagree with the name of this civic; I think either tribalism would be a better name for this. The most primitive Homo sapiens were not anarchists; they generally collaborated as a tribe and had a hierarchy of importance among them.
Chiefdom: Got rid of great general emergence bonus.
Despotism: I increased the city distance instability penalty and increased the Great General Emergence. I decreased the happycap to -3 (from -1), and balanced this out by letting military units create happiness. If possible I would like having multiple great generals in the field at the same time to reduce stability (the argument being that great generals would challenge the right to rule of the leader, and at times would get popular support, hence reducing stability).
Monarchy: New units receive XP bonus. Squires and nobles, being trained from a young age in the art of war, would make for better recruits then those in a free society. I also added a great person and great general birth rate bonus for a similar reason (nobles and princes had greater access to education then most free men in republics, and greater education should leader to greater people). I also removed maintenance modifiers, colonial empires were historically monarchies not because a monarchy has a competitive advantage in colonization but because most great empires at the time were monarchies. I’ve slightly buffed Monarchy and made Republics weaker for this reason.
Republic vs Democracy: How bonuses for Republic and Democracy should be awarded is entirely based on the interpretation of Republic vs Democracy. Given that the Republic tech is enabled far earlier then democracy, my civic changes run under the assumption that Republic merely refers to a more primitive form of democracy:
Roman Republic, Venice etc. would be considered republics while the United States etc. would be considered Democratic.
Republics: Republics normally extended the vote only to property owners (and in most cases only property owners in the capital and large cities). It therefore generally means a more centralized political seen. I have therefore given production and commerce bonuses to the capital, while removed the +10% gold in all cities. I also added a trade route per city, not just because republics were historically trade focused, but also because of the realistic trade demand a republic would give, as well as grant.
Democracy: Democracies typically extended the vote to all (free) citizens, requiring a larger representation and therefore and increased upkeep (high upkeep instead of medium). I gave them beaker and production bonuses in all cities, as political freedoms have historically lead to more innovative populations. I also increased the growth rate of cities (cities now require less to grow).
Theocracy: Increases culture, especially in the capital.
Totalitarianism: What is probably my most controversial change is that it now increases, rather than decreases culture. My argument here is essentially that oppressive regimes normally promoted a like-minded culture among their people and were could more effectively assimilate minor cultures. While certain aspects of culture are discouraged other parts are greatly encouraged.
Technocracy: Technocracy, like Republic is another form of government where I take issue based on the definition. If experts control society, then lawyers and economists should be the ones who govern the country, write laws, etc. I don’t know who considers engineers to be an expert in the field of managing and governing. However technocracy is typically considered to be where, as mentioned in the description scientists and engineers govern society. These two widely accepted definitions have different meanings and therefore would lead to different outcomes. Technocracy, while popular in science fiction as it sounds advanced, is in my opinion useless. I would argue that it would decrease science and production, as scientists would be forced to focus more on managing the economies and politics and therefore less on science. It would be a less effective form of government due to the lack of checks and balances (Smartest person being leader makes him very corruptible, one of the main reasons I see technocracy being inferior to democracy) and most importantly, should have much higher instability as scientists and engineers lack the charisma lawyers and politicians (our current political elite) have, placing less trust between the government and her people. Even despotism would be trusted more because of the leadership, confidence and charisma the despot would have gained through many years of leading troops on the battlefield.
Obedience: No complaints.
City States: +6 gold in every city with a population greater than (except capital). Goal of this is to represent lots of ‘mini capitals’ for each of the city states in the region. Lowers espionage and culture
Magistrates: Increase distance to palace maintenance, decreases Maintenance cost from number of cities.
Meritocracy: Increases commerce and production, not science. 2 local instability, 2 national instability.
Bureaucracy: decreases production, not increases.
Vassalage: No complaints.
Confederacy: No complaints.
Federal: Less Maintenance due to distance (that’s kinda the point of a federal system, electing local representatives in government would make lands distant to the capital easier to manage, and therefore require less maintenance), lowers gold of capital, increases commerce in all cities
Martial Law: More production and less commerce in all cities.
Grid: Larger instability penalty for adopting civic (represents the time between initial and full implementation), requires more food for a city to grow. Big brother increases suicide rate and decreases opportunities for sex (knowing your being watched makes you more uneasy), thus would slow population growth rate. Greatly increases espionage. +1 free spy per city. Grid also decreases crime.
Mind Control: No complaints.
Power
Strongman: No complaints
Junta: No complaints
Sovereignty: No Complaints
Divine Right: Anyway you can make it give a stability bonus for cities with state religion, and a negative stability bonus for non-state religion in a city?
Separation of powers: Increased commerce bonus. Less corruption, more certainty leads to an economic bonus.
Single Party: changed the gold penalty to commerce penalty
Society:
Primitive: No complaints
Tribal: No complaints
Caste: New units receive 3 Experience. -5% science. Caste is the civic that rejects change of any kind the most. While the birth rate penalty does reflect this, I think a science penalty would fit Caste more.
Bourgeois: No complaints
Proletariat: No complaints
Feudal: No complaints
Egalitarian: Removed the growth bonus of speed camp, wood gatherer etc. Increased the production penalty.
Nationalist: Added a subsidy for corporations.
Marxist: Increased maintenance for number of cities. Removed the food bonus. +1 Happiness per city.
Corpornation: Removes the free units bonus. -20% Maintenance cost from Number of cities (corporations are good at cutting costs). No espionage bonus.
Economy:
Communalism: Less food production (tragedy of the commons). Increased military unit production.
Barter: Removed the no foreign trade routes penalty. No inflation. Removed the production bonus. Increased the trade route yield penalty.
Subsistence: No complaints
Trade: I’d add a stability penalty. In history the biggest obstruction to trade was how much citizens typical distrusted/hated foreigners.
Guilds: Removed the science bonus. Increased the food and production and culture bonuses. -10% trade route yield.
Mercentile: Increased income bonus.
Free markets: (As a libertarian I am probably bias) Espionage and culture penalty, +1 unhappiness, increased trade food, production and commerce yield. Increased production and commerce bonuses in all cities.
Corporatist: Increased all the +4% bonuses. Increased inflation.
Planned: Bonus production for slaves (Gulags were pretty effective). Stability and Happiness bonuses. -25% commerce in all cities. Removed the production bonus. (USSR vs USA in productivity. West vs East Germany in productivity).
Regulated: Health bonus in all cities. Increased city maintenance
Green: increased city maintenance.
Military
Militia: Can draft 2 units per turn
Banditry: No complaints
Tribal Warfare: -5% Military Unit Production
Conscription: No complaints
Mercenaries: No complaints
Pacifism: No complaints
Vassalage: +5 free experience, +5 free units
Volunteer Army: +2 free experience (as opposed to 7), +10 free units, low upkeep
Unmanned Warfare: +5% birthrate
Cloning: No complaint
Time Drafting: No complaints
Religion:
Irreligion, Folklore: No complaints
Divine Cults, State Church, Free Church: Slight culture bonus
Intolerant: No complaints
Secular: Science bonus, decreased the culture bonus
Atheism: Removed the stability bonus
Welfare:
Survival: No complaints
Charity: Removed the gold penalty
Church: No complaints
Public works: No complaints
Private: Low upkeep, removed the gold penalty
Subsidized: No complaints
Corporate: No complaints
Socialized: Removed the science bonus, +2 health per city
Paradise: Lowered the science bonus, low upkeep
Superhuman: High upkeep, +2 free experience, +25% birth rate
Garbage:
Anywhere, Burn, Sea, Landfill: No complaints
Exportation: -10% gold/city
Importation: Medium upkeep, reduced sickness penalty
Energy: No complaints
Off-Planet: No complaints
Immigration:
No borders: No complaints
Open: increased production and science (I think it’s ridiculous that attracting skilled workers would yield bonuses that attracting all immigrants wouldn’t), increased crime, added sickness
Closed: No complaints
Skilled: Removed crime bonus, removed trade penalty, medium upkeep
Secure borders: 5% maintenance from # of cities, high upkeep, health bonus
Education:
Ignorance: -5 science/city
Oral Tradition: removed science bonus
Written tradition: low upkeep
Military tradition: +science and culture as opposed to negative
Religious: +10 science, +5 culture
Apprenticeship: +5 science, +10 production/city
Corporate: increased the science bonus, low upkeep
Compulsory: increased the science bonus
Propaganda: Removed the science penalty
E-Education: increased the science bonus
Time travel: increased the science bonus
Language: No complaints
Agriculture:
No agriculture: No complaints
Subsistence: No complaints
Guilds: No complaints
Corporate: Low upkeep, +40% food in all cities, stability penalty, +2 unhappiness
Privatized: No upkeep, +20% food in all cities
Subsidized: (farm subsidies have not, and do not work, ask any economist) Increased stability, +2 happiness, removed the food in cities bonus and food from trade bonus
State: Increased maintenance from distance to palace, removed the food in cities bonus
Green: No complaints
Coinage:
No currency: No complaints
Metals: low upkeep,
Coinage: no complaints
Banknote: No complaints
Paper money: No complaints
Gold standard: Medium upkeep (one of the arguments used by proponents, which I am not one of them, is that it would reduce the need of government, therefore reduce upkeep), -10% foreign trade route (strong currencies hurt, not help trade. Ask yourself why China depreciated their currency, it wasn’t to hurt trade) yield (as opposed to a trade bonus)
Fiat: +25% trade route yield
Credit: 25% inflation, +12% commerce instead of gold in all cities
Digital: removed gold penalty, +15% commerce
Labour:
Why isn’t slavery here? I think the way slavery works right now is kinda stupid and entirely Americanized given how many European governments banned slavery even prior to the middle ages. Slavery should be a labour policy, not its own kinda thing?
Kindly focus on what civics do. 
