Parties?

And what would the purpose of these parties be? How do those themes translate to GC abilities?

I haven't given it detailed thought.

Out of my mind I could say for the Theocracy give some boost to morale and/or increased soldiering? (fanatics and all) also perhaps reduced trade or diplomacy or something.
For the Aetheists I could guess some increase in research and reduced morale or something. Or increased trade but less influence. I am sure it could work out with some extra thought.

Its not so much for the actual numbers (stats) but for the ability to play as one of those parties. You know, for the mood...

For example there are times that I want to play as pacifist so I do, etc.
I don't know how big(difficult) such addition would be.

~SDC~

That reminds me... I'd love to see the ability to take penalties in order to increase the number of bonuses you can take....

E.g. I've decided to be a total pacifist so I do -50% hitpoints so that I can afford another 30% diplomacy...the possibilities are endless. Or alternatively you could go -40% diplomacy, -40% moral, -20% pop growth, etc. etc. and then be the biggest warmonger ever, with max bonuses to weapons, defense, hit points, and soldiering.

Opens up the possibility of min-max gaming but if the dev's were careful to properly balance it shouldn't be too bad - a penalty should give less points than the equivalent bonus costs (so if +10% economics costs 2 points than -10% economics would give you 1 point).

Penalties would be nice. It would give more flavor to each party, too! I just don't think AI would handle disadvantages very well.

The AI wouldn't necessarily have to use them, it could just keep on doing what it does.