Let me explain my idea using the Fascism type of government:

Current:
+15% Food Production
+50% Oil Production
-10% Maximum Per Capita Income
-15% Population

Now, imagine if we take Food Production which is currently at 15%. Which is fine and all but modify it, or even remove it, or replace it with something else etc. What if i create a new form of government? Of course, everyone could create their own and name it whatever they want - barred any existing (or similar) names such as Dictatorship. This said, when spying someone, you would receive the specs of his government :) and will be permanently added to your spy reports until the next set. In the Scores page, the letter could be "S".

Thus, with our example of Fascism, everyone would need to spend 100 POSITIVE points and 100 NEGATIVE points altogether, as every government has both positive AND negative points.

So, 15% could be considered 35 POSITIVE points, and oil production could be considered 65 POSITIVE points. While the negative capita and negative population would each be considered -50 NEGATIVE points. Thus, each would have a total of 100 points, meaning a grand total of 200 points spent. Half in positive, and half in negative.

Therefore, if we consider the initial example with the Food Production of +15%, then +5% could equate to 11 positive points; as for +10% would equate to 23 positive points. This said, any positive points would be rounded down. Of course the grand total of anything could equate between 97-103 points.

Lastly, I understand that we don't want people to create massive killing machines or whatever other type of machine. Let us take Dictatorship with it's +25% power. Perhaps the maximum could be 50%.

OR

we state that any one item cannot be more than 65 points. For example, Dictatorship has the following stats:

+25% Military Strength
+30% Spy Effectiveness
-30% Construction Speed
+33% Ghost Acres


The ghost acres equate to 1 point per extra percentage of ghost acre. So 33% equates to 33 points.
As for the spy effectiveness, each point per percentage equates to 1.1 points. In the end, 33 points.
As for Military Strength, It also equates to the same type of math. 33 points.

So this said, if we say that the mil strength can't be more than 50%, this equates to 65 points (66, but fluff it, we'll round it down a point for convenience).

I know that my idea may not be explained as properly as I want to explain it, but it would take too long to explain an idea that may or may not get shot down.

Any ideas about this? Personally, I like the idea of choosing your strengths AND your weaknesses. I think this can be implemented very easily, provided that the math is agreed upon :)