I've long thought 'government' was a fascinating topic for computers to tackle, but first I think you need to answer what it is you want to model: 1) the proces

I've long thought 'government' was a fascinating topic for computers to tackle, but first I think you need to answer what it is you want to model: 1) the process of government (politicians and politics) or 2) the outcome of government -- the regulation of business and civil activity and international concordances. I think the US gov't (and many military contractors) have long attempted option 1. The modeling of adversary nations or individuals and anticipation of their behavior using scenarios and war games has been around long before computers. But the number of unknown variables and the unknown state of those that are known has greatly limited the practical value of such efforts, IMHO. Even predicting the binary outcome of presidential elections has shown the weaknesses inherent in endeavors like this. But how about option 2; could you model the analytical and decision processes that regulate a society toward 'homeostasis'? Probably, though I suspect adjusting the weights to wisely balance the interests, values, and civil rights in corporations, persons, and countries is likely to prove tricky. But could a lot of government's existing processes be effectively modeled by computer or even automated? Absolutely yes, IMHO.