What I didn't understand was your advice to not build both, Banks and Universities! In all of my games so far I have made the experience that I couldn't afford Libraries without Marketplaces (and Universities without Banks). And a similar "dualism" seems to exist between Labs and Stockmarkets. Let me explain what I mean: let's assume I want to achieve the optimum tech output. If I would build only a couple of Granaries, Temples, Aquaeducts and then lots of Libraries (in all cities with more than 6 beakers per round), then my expenses are so high that I can move the science slider to at most 20%.
To me, that sounds like you must be paying way too much in unit support costs (and maintenance costs for Temples
), or you don't have enough roads producing income. I don't know for certain without looking at a game, but I can't remember having to turn science down that low to stay solvent. Where is all your money going?
But if I add Marketplaces to those productive towns, it has two benefits: first it increases happiness, so I can set my luxury slider down to 0%, which means I can increase the tech slider by 10-20%. And secondly the extra cash pays for all my expenses, so I can increase the tech slider by another 20%. Now the tech slider is at 50-60% and my Libraries are really effective!
Marketplaces are a special exception - I usually build them also even when I am going for a science game because of the extra happiness.
Later in the game, when University and Banks are available, I usally have a similar effect: without Banks I'm never able to set the tech slider high enough for the Universities to be effective! So even if it may sound paradoxical: I use Banks (and StockMarkets) to increase my science output! Without them I've never been able to achieve a science rate of "4 turns per tech". Perhaps you should try this in one of your games and see how you fare with it? I always thought it was a good strategy.
Interesting - I've never been able to achieve 4 turn research unless my science slider was cranked up to at least 80-90% (often 100%), unless it is late enough in the game to have tons of scientist farms in which case you can pretty much win however you choose.
My typical approach is to have the AI finance my science. I'll keep the science slider at close to 100% and run a deficit - when I discover a tech, I'll sell it for all the cash in the world (and sometimes gpt) to finance deficit research on my next tech.
I understand the concept of building Banks to increase your science percentage to increase your science, but I'm surprised you can reach 4-turn research without cranking your science slider so high that your banks are useless.
However, I always like Democracy best because compared to Monarchism it approximately doubles your income, and compared to Republic it's still 50% more. Combined with the University+Bank strategy this really rocks! In some of my more successful games I was able to keep up a 4 turn per tech rate and still get like 600-700 gpt, which could be used for investment in city improvements or for unit upgrade... So perhaps the best strategy is: get out of Despotism ASAP, then use Monarchy/Republic as a transitional phase and move to Democracy quickly. I think changing the government early on doesn't do much harm to your empire. In the current game I went to Monarchy too late and this had the side effect that my Democracy came to late, too. But the benefits of Democracy really pay off in the later stages of the game, when you have a big empire! The income is simply incredible, and don't forget about the fact that Democracy significantly reduces corruption and increases the Worker effectiveness!
I admit it has been quite a while since I used Democracy, but I don't recall the income increasing by 50% over Republic. They both have the same trade bonus, Democracy has lower corruption, and they have different unit support (sometimes one will cost more, sometimes the other will - I usually find my unit costs are lower under Republic than they would be under Democracy).
The reduced corruption and increased worker speed are definite perks, the main problem is the second period of anarchy. By the time you reach Democracy, you are probably looking at 7+ turns of anarchy. When you consider all the shields and gold (and even food because the Despotism penalty returns for anarchy, and you often have to hire specialists since the luxury slider doesn't work) you lose during those 7 turns, even though Democracy may increase your output, it takes an awfully long time before you reach the "break-even" point in most games.
Finally I have a question about culture. Obviously a big mistake of mine in the current game was to neglect culture. But I still don't quite understand it, because I had lots of Libraries (for a scientific nation like Russia they are so cheap...!) In some other threads I read about the "1000 year effect for Temples" and that one or two early Temples help with not falling too far behind in culture. What did they mean by this? How exactly does this work?
Megistatos is absolutely correct about the doubling effect, but it still doesn't usually make it productive to build early temples. If you need to build something while waiting for your city to grow, a warrior for MP/barb fighting/exploration/making contacts, or a galley (if possible) for exploration/making contacts, or even a granary in a town that wouldn't normally need one are better choices than a temple.
It was unfortunate that you lost this game via culture, but other builds help your empire much more in the early stages, and early temples will not generally improve your game.
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And don't worry: like neilmeister I've been playing Civ1 for nights on end in 92-94 and still got my diploma... 
to Chamnix! I'll certainly try your tips in my next games! Here are a few more comments from my side: 
But in that case, even if someone did research as far as Democracy, you wouldn't want to switch to it because it is so weak in the face of military casualties.
