While googling around for inspiration, I found an essay on Anarchy Archives, "Evolution and Revolution" by By Elisee Reclus.

"The word Evolution," she writes, "synonymous with gradual and continuous development in morals and ideas, is brought forward in certain circles as though it were the antithesis of that fearful word, Revolution, which implies changes more or less sudden in their action, and entailing some sort of catastrophe."

And I thought, yeah, that'd make a good game. So here's the result.

You, the player, are trying to gradually build up society by encouraging different values. If your people disagree with your values, they will start Revolutions, drastically shifting society's values and harming your efforts.

(Believe it or not, I'm not actually trying to push any kind of social or political agenda here. I just thought it would make for good gameplay. Did I succeed? You decide.)

UPDATE: I've discovered the Love2D WebGL Player at https://github.com/ghoulsblade/love-webplayer , and I've put a WebGL version of Evolution Or Revolution online. Shiny up-to-date-browsers required, it's a bit temperamental, and the Game Over screen isn't working, but apart from that it's not too bad. Enjoy.