Cabinet and Vice President
| Where | The cabinet screen and the dashboard |
|---|---|
| Seats | Ten per era |
| Stats | Competence, loyalty, ideology and age for each member |
| Options | Choose, fire and replace cabinet members; choose and message the Vice President |
| Premium | Cabinet management is free; free-text orders and direct messages require premium |
The cabinet is the ten-seat executive team the President assembles at the start of a game and manages from the cabinet screen. When a policy touches one of a member's responsibilities, that member has a say in whether it is carried out in full, watered down, or refused, and how much of its effect actually lands. The Vice President sits alongside the cabinet as a running mate with a full profile, an optional issue portfolio, a tie-breaking vote in the Senate, and a place in the line of succession.
Every cabinet has ten seats, but which ten depends on the era:
- Modern: Chief of Staff, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of the Treasury, Attorney General, Secretary of Homeland Security, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Secretary of Energy, Press Secretary.
- 1990s: the same shape, with a Secretary of Commerce in place of Homeland Security, since the department did not yet exist.
- 1970s: Chief of Staff, State, Defense, Treasury, Attorney General, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Housing and Urban Development, Secretary of Labor, Press Secretary.
- 1950s and 1960s: the 1970s shape, with a Postmaster General in place of Housing and Urban Development.
The Chief of Staff, the Press Secretary and the Postmaster General are never voted on by the Senate; every other seat is. Each seat only weighs in on policies within its own area: the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense on foreign policy, the Treasury on tax, the Attorney General on crime and immigration, and so on down the era's slate. A governor in Career Mode has a separate state cabinet that follows the same rules. Each cabinet member has a competence score, a loyalty score and an ideology score, shown on a scale of 0 to 100, along with an age and a short biography. At the start of a custom game the President chooses each secretary from several generated candidates; a preset scenario instead begins with a historical cabinet already in place, and a workshop pack can pin its own choices, skipping the selection screens entirely.
A newly chosen cabinet member goes to the Senate for confirmation. A nominee is more likely to be confirmed when the President's party holds more seats in the Senate, and less likely the further the nominee's own politics sit from the centre. A nominee who is rejected leaves the seat vacant, and the President may try again the following month. If Congress has been dissolved, every seat is filled outright, without a vote.
A member who shares the President's aims, or who is simply loyal, goes along with a policy in their area; one who does not may resist, and if enough members resist, the policy is watered down or blocked outright. A vacant seat cannot block anything. How much of a policy's effect on the economy and society actually lands depends on the competence of the members responsible for it and on the Chief of Staff, who improves or worsens how well the whole cabinet carries a policy out; a Vice President whose portfolio matches the policy also helps. The cabinet screen lets the President fire any member, which costs approval and leaves the seat vacant until a replacement is confirmed, and a premium account can instead give a free-text order naming someone to fire, replace or discipline. A cabinet member can also be lost if government stability collapses; see Scandals and succession.
Every game has a Vice President. A preset scenario starts with the real running mate from history; a custom game lets the President choose one of several generated candidates, each with a full profile. The dashboard shows the Vice President's competence and loyalty, and lets the President assign a portfolio from a short list of policy areas, which improves how well policies in that area are carried out. The Vice President breaks tied votes in the Senate and stands next in the line of succession: if the President is assassinated, or completes a full term, the career can continue as the Vice President, who inherits the cabinet, the party and the wars in progress, and then chooses a new running mate.