1. How would that work?
If the flag is on (GVT_ROULETTE=YES), the game actively changes the government types for all the players. All civs behave like they they "knew" all government types from the beginning and never has any periods of Anarchy between changes of the government (except for one case, descripted below), so any government can be implemented at any time. A player cannot cause the revolution and change the government by himself; instead, it's the game ("his people"), who does it randomly for him ("your people just got bored with Communism and wants Monarchy").
You can choose three things:
=> governments available (Anarchy is not recommended here),
=> minimum duration between government switch,
=> maximum duration between government switch.
First, all players starts with despotism, as usual. The game sets random period (number of turns) to the next overthrow (like 20-60 turns). This number can differ for every player (it's always random). When it comes to the revolution, the game sets up new, randomly chosen government. Then it sets a new number of turns for this government. And so on. There is no revolution (Anarchy) period between government switches.
2. Why?
Because it would randomize the gameplay, if someone is interested. And make game more unpredictable. Every random period you must adapt to new conditions. You have to be ready for everything. The changes are like the weather - which we doesn't have influence on: it's sometimes good, sometimes bad; you never know. But it's equal, because it affects all the players.
It's your people, who does the revolutions - not you!
The Anarchy period is restricted to the situation when your people are unhappy. I can imagine that the player could make people unhappy intentionally, just to cause the "fake" revolution and overthrown the government he doesn't like at the moment (ex: imagine, that you're preparing for a war, and suddenly you get democracy - what a surprise!; you'd like to change it to successfully provide a war at your conditions). To avoid that, this activity must not be profitable. We can solve it by a number of ways, for example:
=> long periods of Anarchy if revolution is caused by player's actions (citizen's unhappiness),
=> forgetting a science (during anarchy time, there's a turmoil, libraries plundering, decline of educational system...),
=> loss of reputation (civ with Anarchy is considered as a "failed state" by others),
=> loss of money,
=> maybe even some slight chance for a civil war outbreak (that'd be quite harsh punishment, but would definitely discourage player from undertaking this kind of activity),
=> etc.
IMO, this is worth to test.
Suppose there are 4 players and we pick Despotism, Monarchy, Communism, Republic and Democracy to be randomly changed between period of 20-60 turns. A typical timeline of ~300 turns would look like this (must be showed in full screen to be displayed correctly):
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Typical timeline of revolutions with 4 civs & random government (without anarchy) between 20-60 turns:
Game|Current gvt change | AZTECS +turns to| GERMANS +turns to| CHINESE +turns to| RUSSIANS +turns to
turn| | change | change | change | change
| | | | |
|AZTEC/GERM./CHIN./RUSS.|*Revolution |*Revolution |*Revolution |*Revolution
| | | | |
000 |A(ds) G(ds) C(ds) R(ds)|*Despotism +20 (20) |*Despotism +47 (47) |*Despotism +32 (32) |*Despotism +52 (52)
020 |A(co) |*Communism +42 (62) | Despotism | Despotism | Despotism
032 | C(mo) | Communism | Despotism |*Monarchy +59 (91) | Despotism
047 | G(mo) | Communism |*Monarchy +52 (99) | Monarchy | Despotism
052 | R(de)| Communism | Monarchy | Monarchy |*Democracy +31 (83)
062 |A(mo) |*Monarchy +43 (105)| Monarchy | Monarchy | Democracy
083 | R(co)| Monarchy | Monarchy | Monarchy |*Communism +26 (109)
091 | C(co) | Monarchy | Monarchy |*Communism +39 (130)| Communism
099 | G(co) | Monarchy |*Communism +30 (129)| Communism | Communism
105 |A(ds) |*Despotism +51 (156)| Communism | Communism | Communism
109 | R(mo)| Despotism | Communism | Communism |*Monarchy +22 (130)
129 | G(ds) | Despotism |*Despotism +42 (171)| Communism | Monarchy
130 | C(de) R(re)| Despotism | Despotism |*Democracy +38 (168)|*Republic +50 (180)
156 |A(re) |*Republic +42 (198)| Despotism | Democracy | Republic
168 | C(ds) | Republic | Despotism |*Despotism +57 (225)| Republic
171 | G(de) | Republic |*Democracy +35 (206)| Despotism | Republic
180 | R(co)| Republic | Democracy | Despotism |*Communism +23 (203)
198 |A(co) |*Communism +56 (254)| Democracy | Despotism | Communism
203 | R(ds)| Communism | Democracy | Despotism |*Despotism +60 (263)
206 | G(mo) | Communism |*Monarchy +21 (227)| Despotism | Despotism
225 | C(de) | Communism | Monarchy |*Democracy +30 (255)| Despotism
227 | G(re) | Communism |*Republic +57 (282)| Democracy | Despotism
254 |A(de) |*Democracy +51 (305)| Republic | Democracy | Despotism
255 | C(mo) | Democracy | Republic |*Monarchy +43 (298)| Despotism
263 | R(co)| Democracy | Republic | Monarchy |*Communism +42 (305)
282 | G(ds) | Democracy |*Despotism +38 (320)| Monarchy | Communism
298 | C(co) | Democracy | Despotism |*Communism +51 (349)| Communism
305 |A(re) R(ds)|*Republic +57 (362)| Despotism | Communism |*Despotism +22 (327)
320 | G(mo) | Republic |*Monarchy +40 (360)| Communism | Despotism
327 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
349 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
360 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
362 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...
All in all, this option is for players, who likes an unpredictable surprises and likes to play risky. The difference between predictable and unpredictable gameplay is just like between playing chess and playing poker.