Keeping folks happy is an important part of Victoria 3. Don't put enough effort into it, and you might very well have some revolution on your hands, and turmoil can bring a country to its knees with how badly it'll affect morale and the economy. The problem, as is always the case of rulers throughout history, is Radicalism.
Radicals are pesky - they hate the status quo and desire far too much change. They're difficult to deal with, to boot. Luckily, there are ways to avoid a bloody revolution on your doorstep!
Radicalism Causes
Radicalism is a measure of how unhappy a person is with their government, which makes it easy to understand what might cause it. Specifically, the following are the main reasons you might encounter Radicalism in Victoria 3:
- A Pop's Standard of Living falls below their expected minimums.
- A Pop's Standard of Living falls in any respect.
- A Pop lives in a country where they are discriminated against, either due to their religion or their culture.
- A Pop is fired from their workplace as a result of changes in production methods or downsizing the building they worked in.
- A Pop is a member of an Interest Group that has political demands that have gone unmet for too long.
Additionally, many of the game's random events have choices that cause some Radicalism to show up in certain Pops or even groups of Pops. Choices to watch out for are those that increase Radicalism in entire Stratas - those can be incredibly impactful.
To see whether a culture or religion is discriminated against, take a look at the Culture menu from the left. Cultures that are discriminated against have an icon that looks like a head beneath a boot.
How To Reduce Radicalism
When there's enough Radicalism, you can end up with a violent revolution on your hands and tons of internal Turmoil, so knowing how to reduce Radicalism is important. The key to countering Radicalism is Loyalism.
Loyalism is Radicalism's opposite - loyalists love the government and have a great influence in raising the approval of Interest Groups. Importantly, loyalists are not radicals. Unfortunately, while there are many ways to turn Pops radical, there are only two ways to turn Pops loyalist:
- Increase a Pop's Standard of Living.
- Random events that create Loyalists within certain Pop groups.
When a radical undergoes either a Standard of Living improvement or an event outcome that would turn them into a loyalist, they are instead stripped of their Radicalism.
Radicalism is not something that reduces over time. If you want to reduce it in a substantial way, you should take deliberate steps to improve the Standards of Living amongst the Pops with the most Radicalism.
Your laws will greatly affect how susceptible and how affected your country is by Radicalism - here are some tips on picking laws to reduce Radicalism:
- Militarized Police Force and Dedicated Police Force will give you a nice reduction in radical gain from Standard of Living decreases, making them fantastic if you run into economic trouble. The former also reduces how many radicals you get from discrimination, but comes with a small increase in country-wide mortality.
- The Law Enforcement institution reduces the number of radicals arising from Standard of Living decreases, based on the level of investment in the institution.
- National Guard and Secret Police both reduce Political Movement Radicalism gain, which is important for countering politically powerful Interest Groups with lots of radical support.
- Guaranteed Liberties both reduces the number of radicals arising from Standard of Living decreases, and increases the number of loyalists arising from Standard of Living increases.
- The Home Affairs institution reduces the number of radicals arising from Standard of Living decreases, and increases the number of loyalists arising from Standard of Living increases, based on the level of investment in the institution.
Political Movement Radicalism
When a Political Movement is made to attempt a law change or keep a law the same, it will have two variables: Support and Radicalism. Support tells you how much political strength the movement has behind it, and Radicalism tells you how much of the movement is made up of radicals with a significant amount of anger.
If a Political Movement has a very high Radicalism level, it is more likely to start a Revolution against you, which can be incredibly dangerous and economically damaging. Consider acquiescing to the movement's demands if their Radicalism score gets too high, and also consider the National Guard and Secret Police laws.
Turmoil
Turmoil is the result of high levels of Radicalism in a state. It has very negative effects, including an increase in tax waste (which means less income for your balance) and a reduction in migration attraction (which means fewer people coming to that state to live and work, stunting growth).
Turmoil correlates with the level of Radicalism in the state, with higher numbers meaning more severe consequences. You can reduce these consequences by making sure you have a Policing Law that involves a police force. Additionally, the Violent Suppression Decree can be issued to states with Turmoil to reduce their negative effects.
Cultural Turmoil
Cultural Turmoil is a special kind of Turmoil shared between Pops of the same culture, and it is calculated on both a global scale and a country-by-country scale.
- If a culture's global Turmoil level reaches a certain point, the game will select an attractive migration target for them, and Pops of that culture will start mass migrating to the target.
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If a culture's Turmoil level within one country reaches a certain point, they may try to secede. Upon secession, a Diplomatic Play will automatically begin, putting you at war with the culture's newly separated country.
- Secession can only happen in countries that control some of the homelands of the radical culture. Pops cannot secede in another culture's homelands.
To severely slow down the progress of a secession movement, consider investing in the Home Affairs institution. You should be able to slow down the progress of Cultural Turmoil enough to make things right.