I haven't played as them yet, but a look through the techs they can start with in the scenario editor shows no Interstellar Republic, Star Democracy, or Star Federation. So If they do have any they aren't the normal three.

The government techs aren't too difficult to trade for.

So it seems to confirm that the Iconian tree has no government techs. Is this by design or just an omission? Would be fine, if one of the devs could make this clear. I always regarded the government forms as a core game feature, like ethical alignment is.

@Tototot: The Precursor Achive and Library are awesome. This is why I thought it would be a good idea with my custom super breeder race. The (only) morale building gives 25% bonus but costs quite a bit of maintenance (5bc), so being at 100% approval becomes expensive and the lack of government reduces incentive. Two one-per-planet buildings are very powerfuld, the "Interstellar Refinery" 16mp at 10bc and the "Merchant Trade Complex" +50% economy at 1bc.

@ghostwes: I always play with tech trading disabled

I agree. Think about the Iconians from a storyline/backstory point of view. If I understand correctly, they are a militaristic empire, albeit a fairly friendly one. Their main challenge as a society is adapting from their old government style (which mimicked the Precursors' style) to a new and modern style that will work without the Precursors being there to help them along. It makes sense that de-imperialization might not occur to them, and might not be very attractive to them even if it did.

I don't find this nearly as annoying as the fact that the Thalans don't seem to have any farming techs. How can you increase population (and hence revenues) without farming techs??

Both the Iconians and the Yor lack the government techs. I'm uncertain at this point as to whether it's intentional or not. It makes sense from an in-fiction perspective, particularly for the Yor, but it also removes a chunk of strategy from the game for these two races (they never have to think about elections), and hurts them economically.

I'm not certain their own economic properties are good compensation for the loss:
* the Yor get their Efficiency Studies techs (lots of inherent +econ bonuses, good for +45 to econ civ-wide in total, while the comparable tech chain for the Terrans gives a mere +15) and the Efficiency Center (one per planet, +25% econ, which is the same as Stock Exchanges but comes earlier). However the Yor have no multiple-build economy buildings at all.

* the Iconians have the Merchant Trade Complex (one per planet, +50% econ). They also get some (pretty feeble) multiple-build economy buildings.

You can of course trade for the techs, but
a) that's no use to people who play with tech trading off
if this is unintentional, it still needs to be pathched and trading for it is merely a workaround until then
c) if this IS an intentional thing, it seems a bit weird that they can overcome it by trade. If the fictional concept is that the Yor operate as a collective and therefore don't really have democratic governance, it doesn't make sense that they should import the concept...