I once thought it had something to do with secrecy of indicies of various types. I was about to get all indignant about the assumption of openness in states that might identify with a particular economic method.
It seems to me that government type meaning something might be interesting. Although I think that a simple choice from 6 options would be inappropriate and mundane. Perhaps something where you have 6 (or so) variables such as tax regime (essentially tax rate), freedom of information (indicies available, productivity), freedom of travel (im/emmigration, productivity), centralisation of buearacracy (ratio of size of captial to cities), personality cult etc.
Each variable could affect various things, such as bonuses to productivity (welfare led?) which might be offset by greater consumption of certain products (such as more internet required for countries with more freedom of inform
R
Ravenous Cannibal (Little Upsilon)
All worlds
They could make it effect the war engine. Kamikaze aircraft for theocracy (double range, higher accuracy, no return), rapid re-activation for anarchists (maybe 33% instead of 10), etc.
The effect could also have penalties. Theocracies might have to stop production for religious festivals. Communists might not be able to have public corporations.
Making a balanced list might require a lot of testing and tweaking.
Z
Zentrino (Little Upsilon)
All worlds
Those are all good ideas.
E
Emperor Norberto (Little Upsilon)
All worlds
And here I was making my country a democracy. Back to being a dictator.
R
Ravenous Cannibal (Little Upsilon)
All worlds
Dictators could suffer more severe rebellions and civil disorder.
M
Maxwell 'Danger' Powers (Little Upsilon)
All worlds
But only if they set personality cult and freedom of information to corresponding values. A people who are happy will support a dictator.
E
Emperor Norberto (Little Upsilon)
All worlds
R
Ravenous Cannibal (Little Upsilon)
All worlds
This is a game. So the impact of the effects of each type of government should be proportional. You could have 9 positive effects one for each type of government or 9 harmful ones.