Yes, that is one of the two govt options.

It's called the 'politics' system. Your govt has a 'political structure', which is the % of power that each 'social class' -- and the leader -- has in your govt. So far, the 'social classes' are just 'business leaders', 'religous leaders', 'popular leaders' and 'military leaders'. The game will possibly start with a social structure of 'player/king = 100%'. Then the player will change this thru the course of the game, depending on circumstances.

Each group will have a preference on each govt policy ('Ethnic Discrimination', 'Taxation', 'Religious Discrimination', changing the political structure, etc). A player wanting to change a policy makes a 'proposal' (goes to his 'govt policy' popup window and selects the value he wants). Then each social group will either vote for or against your change, depending.

So it either passes or fails.

For the moment, only the player can initiate a policy change. This will change in future releases.

You have various ways of gaining the support of a social group

1. Learn what they want, and make a proposal you know they'll accept.
   
2. Bribery of social group leaders.
   
3. Blackmail of social group leaders.
   
4. Arrest of social group leaders.
   
5. Assasination of social group leaders.
   
6. Close down the parliment/congress, and declare a dictatorship.
   

None of these are automatic, of course. You could spend money on a bribe to a Popular leader, only to find he refuses to take the money. Or, he takes the money, but still votes against you. Arresting/assasinating leaders can have unpredictable effects -- if successful, that social group's political power will be lowered for a certain number of turns. But how much it's lowered can be impossible to predict.

When you pass a change, the groups that objected will become unhappy. If their unhappiness increases enough, they will demand more political power. Eventually, a group that demands more political power without getting it will revolt.

A player can also attempt bribe/blackmail/assasinate the leaders in another player's civ with his secret service/spy network.