What happens if the ruling body of a country decides not to do by the will of the people? That is how revolutions start, and those are always bloody clashes between Loyalists and Radicals.
The radicalism of a Political Movement comes in when you don't bow to the wishes of that Political Movement. Radicalism is based on the number of Radical pops and Clout of Angry Interest Groups supporting the Movement. A movement with low Radicalism is one that is intent on getting its wishes heard through peaceful means, while a movement with high Radicalism is willing to use more extreme methods, up to and including sparking a Revolution.
It is by no means a sure thing that every peaceful movement will become radical, and movements may very well fizzle out without accomplishing their goal, but ignoring the wishes of a significant part of your population and/or political establishment does come with some associated risks.
When talking about Political Movement Radicalism, we mentioned Radical Pops, and since they play an important role in creating and radicalizing Political Movements we will explain how Radical Pops and their Loyalist counterparts function in Victoria 3. The first thing that should be understood about Radicals and Loyalists is that just like with Interest Group membership, Radicals and Loyalists are not whole Pops but rather individuals within Pops.
Radicals are individuals who have become disillusioned with the government and political apparatus of the country and want to seek change through any means necessary, while Loyalists are ‘patriots’ who are generally willing to put their political views and goals aside for the sake of the nation. There is a large variety of ways that Pops can become Radicals or Loyalists, here are a few of the more common reasons listed below:
- Pops that experience an increase in material living standards will become more loyal,
- Pops that experience a decrease in material living standards will become more radical,
- Pops whose Standard of Living is below the minimum they expect to have will radicalize over time, particularly if it’s so low that they’re actually starving,
- Pops that are literate but discriminated against tend to radicalize over time,
- Pops from Political Movements whose demands are ignored may radicalize over time.
Paradox Interactive
Radicals and Loyalists generally function in directly opposite ways. For example, Radicals are more likely to create and join Political Movements, as well as contributing to radicalizing said movements, while Loyalists will never join Political Movements. Loyalists make the Interest Groups they are part of happier, while Radicals make them less happy and so on.
Pops will remain Radical or Loyalist until they either die or have a status change as a result of becoming more radical/loyal, for example, a Loyalist Pop might stop being Loyalist if their material standard of living suddenly takes a nosedive, but they do, in fact, die. As generations die off and are replaced by new ones, fewer and fewer people will remember all the great things you did for the country 30 years ago and will start wondering instead what you’ve done for them lately.
That means that one way to prevent political activism and curtail movements that oppose your agenda is to increase the Standard of Living of your Pops. Oh, and follow the Roman way of bread and games, people love distractions.
