Checks and balances

Checks and Balances is a setting chosen at the start of a game. When it is switched on, most policies the President puts forward do not simply take effect. They are considered in turn by Congress, the Supreme Court and the cabinet, each of which can let a policy through, weaken it, or stop it altogether. Statements and personnel decisions bypass this system entirely and always go into effect as written.

Which body considers a policy first, and in what order, depends on what kind of policy it is:

• Legislation goes to Congress, then the Supreme Court, then the cabinet. A bill that fails in Congress never reaches the other two.
• An executive order goes to the cabinet and then the Supreme Court. Congress has no vote on an order when it is issued.
• A diplomatic or military move goes to the cabinet, then Congress, then the Supreme Court, though the Supreme Court does not review diplomatic or military matters at all.

If an earlier stage weakens a policy, it usually reaches the next stage in a milder form, so a policy that survives every stage can end up considerably softer than the one the President proposed.

In Congress, legislation is put to a vote. Members of the President's own party are more likely to break ranks on a bill that is extreme, or that cuts against their party's usual position, while members of the opposing party are more likely to cross over and support a genuinely bipartisan one. A bill that fails is sometimes brought back in a stripped-down form; if that also fails, it is blocked. An executive order, or a diplomatic and military move, is not voted on directly, but Congress can still challenge it and block its funding if the opposition controls both chambers. If Congress has been dissolved, by the self-coup special action, every policy passes without a vote.

The Supreme Court reviews legislation and executive orders, but not diplomatic moves, military orders, statements or personnel decisions. Whether a case is brought at all depends on how extreme the policy is. A mild policy is rarely challenged, while an extreme or unconstitutional one is challenged in most games. Once a case reaches the bench, each justice's vote depends on their own politics and how strongly they hold them, so a bench weighted against a policy is more likely to strike it down, or to send back a narrower version for the President to accept in place of the original. After a self-coup dissolves Congress, an adverse ruling is recorded as defied rather than blocked: the court still rules, but the ruling is ignored, at a cost to government stability each time it happens.

The cabinet's part in this process is described on the Cabinet and Vice President page. When a policy is modified, the analysis screen shows what changed, and legislation that Congress narrows is held on the dashboard as a bill for the President to sign. When a policy is blocked at any stage, the month proceeds as though nothing had been enacted at all. A governor in Career Mode faces the same system, judged by the state legislature and the state courts in place of Congress and the Supreme Court.