When he is down to say 5 or 6 turns campaigns could start and elections would ensue to ensure a smooth transition. Any polls directed to the people should be done during the campaigning phase so there will be no stopping play. If the Prez sways from his agenda or from the will of the people an impeachment proceeding could begin. Play would not be stopped until he was voted out by the people and the VP would immediately resume play. The key here is one turn per day no matter what. A country does not stop functioning because the Senate is deadlocked or a Prez is going through impeachment hearings. Why should play be stopped for such things? 

A party would consist of a group of three or more Community members. A party must have an elected first speaker or Party Leader. It must have a manifesto stating its Political stance. When campaigning it must outline its policies. When elected it appoints ministers from its party to positions of Prime Minister (plays turns, finance, civics), Minister of Foreign Affairs (war, peace, trade negotiations), Minister of State(worker, tech research, city improvements).

Elections. To run you must have a party. A party must be declared and given its own party headquarters forum which is only accessible by the members. It must have a policy and manifesto thread viewable to everybody.

I think this would give the multiple team aspect but also with just 1 .sav. Its a rough idea, alot more thought needed. But in short No President, No Senate, No Supreme Court, No Consititution. Parties.

It even sounds more fun

I have a feeling that the two team idea may fall down due to the complexity and amount of work required to get such a thing up and running. That would be a great shame and a missed opportunity in my opinion. The chance to see two sets of (skilled?) players competing (even co-operating) with each other under different governmental structures would be fascinating. OK, there may be spies, defections, mistakes, recriminations, changes of government - why not? Sounds like fun to me.

I certainly agree with the one turn per day idea. That is pretty much essential in order to maintain momentum and interest. The governmental systems must also be as minimalistic as it is possible to make them whilst still being functional (intricate constitutions and subsequent detail-wrangling are a yawn-fest, and I am not the only one to hold that opinion I'll warrent)

I believe the underlying interest is already here. All we need do is make it happen. I'll even try to come up with an alternative form of goverment idea. Guess who'll be President For Life?

I can give each team a public area and the necessary private forums accessible only by team members.

This will probably limit my participation to game admin, since as site admin, I automatically have access to all areas of the site.  This solves one problem as someone neutral would be needed to create the game file and handle any issues that comes up during the game.

It would be a damn shame to lose you as a possible player, though the offer is very useful and selfless. Wouldn't most secret communication be via PM? Do you have access to those? If not, couldn't you participate?

Alernative Government structures: PLUTOCRACY (just an idea)

Each accepted team member is granted 10 MCr (million credits) to spend on buying votes (hey, it happens) Every 2 weeks a 24 hour "election"/open auction is held where team members can bid MCr's to become Plutocrat. Multiple and successive bidding is permitted and at the close the highest bidder is declared Plutocrat for 10 turns (2 weeks) The second highest bidder is VP, and in the case of a tie, the first to register a bid is the winner.

Only the winner actually "spends" his MCr's - all other participants retain theirs.

MCr's are transferrable between any two team members by open post announcement at any time except during the 24 hour election period.

When all MCr's have been spent, each current team member receives another 10 MCr. This heralds the start of a new Regime. Latecomers/new players cannot receive new MCr's until the start of a new Regime, but they may receive MCr's donated by other players.

The Plutocrat has complete control of the game actions and play (though he may ask advice of his fellow team members)

A Plutocrat is awarded 1 bonus MCr for completing 10 consecutive game turns on time.

Notes: this system is not as undemocratic as it may first appear. In fact, every member of the team is guaranteed a presidential position should they so wish. If you prefer, think of MCr's as votes, or electoral points. However, I am a great fan of letting the guy in charge simply get on with it and then, if he f***s up, you get rid of him, hence the "transferrable credits". The bonus is a little reward for doing a good job, and maybe keeping you in power just that tiny bit longer to complete your vision. The two week thing is simply because I expect the game will be run along those lines - 10 turns per two weeks with weekends not counting as a lot of people have a problem with weekends. This system does not tick all the boxes since I couldn't remain Plutocrat for Ever, so I shall work on it. Stay tuned.

Right now we seem to have about 10 - 12 active members would a demockracy  game work with so few plays, would it not just become a complicated Pbem with members taking turns with the turns like a dynasty game? It sounds like this to me.

Yes, but each team would only have 24 hrs to complete their turn. So 2 efficient governments must be designed to keep the momentum going.

In a nutshell . Seems a majority of the citizens want to give it a try, including me. Two civs will either be twice the fun or twice the hardache. Thats why it is important we get creative but keep it very simple. I am more and more liking any dictator style of government. Elect a guy and let him roll, if he screws up then give him the boot.