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General rules

Your task is to survive in office for the whole four-year term and win the next elections. In order to fulfil this task, you will have to keep your voters happy. Approval ratings represent the popularity of your government. The popularity will grow if the conditions of life improve and will fall if the conditions deteriorate. You can influence those conditions by using policies. However, as the game's title might imply, the policies at your disposal are economic in nature. Use them wiselly and the voters will express their gratitide at the ballot box. Be recless and the approval ratings of your cabinet will fall. If they fall too low, your party coleagues may come to the conclusion, that it is in the party's best interest, that you are removed from office before elections. And if that happens, you will lose the game.

There are just a few rules that you need to know to play this game:

  1. The game is turn-based. Every turn is two months of game time.
  2. To win the game, your party must win the next elections.
  3. There is a law in the constitution, that limits the national debt to 50% of GDP. If you exceed this level, you will have to reduce the budget deficit planned for next turn to zero before proceeding.
  4. Elections are won if your party obtains more than 50% of votes.
  5. Approval ratings have a certain margin of error. Actual election result may differ from approval ratings in the turn preceeding elections.
  6. If the approval ratings fall below a certain level, you can be forced to resign from office by your party. If this happens you loose the game.