The player has to deal with "situations", which are typically problems such as petrol protests or homelessness, and also has to make decisions on dilemmas that arise on each turn.

The player introduces policies and uses sliders to change the amount of government funding, level of a tax or generally the law and regulations in that particular area.

A dilemma is an important decision which must be resolved for the turn to be ended and situations are ongoing conditions which must be dealt with or helped and enjoyed.

A sequel to the game was released in December 2007, which, while very similar to the original in terms of gameplay, differs in that it uses fictional nations.

[6] Democracy 4 uses an in-house developed game engine coded in C++ using Visual Studio by two programmers in the UK, Cliff Harris and Jeff Sheen.

[7] The original game was released in 2007 in the United States by Tri-Synergy, with added events and policies, and a special mode in which the player controls a fictional nation.

[11] About.com rated the game 3.5/5 and said "Democracy does exactly what it sets out to do - get you thinking about how even small changes effect [sic] different groups of people".

[13] While Polish magazine CD-Action stated that the game "does much more for understanding democracy than any citizenship lesson,"[14] Daniel Schindel's critical review for Unwinnable noted several inaccuracies concerning the in-game effects of imposing death penalty, legalizing drugs, and strong labor laws.

This title, as with the spin-off, Democracy: Africa, was produced by a joint venture between Positech Games and Stargazy Studios.

New features added to Democracy 4 included simulated corruption, crackdowns on political freedoms and free speech, and authoritarianism.